Diabolik Dominatrix (DL x OC)
by Phosephora
Summary: The night Cordelia died changed the lives of the brothers forever. But not because of what happened to their mother...because that night someone else died too. That night they also lost a sister. (Genre falls under: Romance, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Drama, Suspense, and Tragedy. Mostly canon compliant. WARNINGS: standard Diabolik Lovers warnings apply)
1. Chapter 1

**WARNINGS: standard Diabolik Lovers warnings apply (i.e. incest, toxic relationships, abuse, violence, profanity, etc)**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Diabolik Lovers, only the plot of this fanfic that diverges from the original DL plot and my OC**

 **No.1: "My Most Precious Doll"**

He gave her a choice this time.

Laito Sakamaki never gives her a choice.

 **'132~'**

Usually it's "surrender willingly, or be punished and forced to surrender anyway". But this time he offered her an alternative. To "spice things up".

After a few weeks of living with the Sakamaki brothers, Yui had come to know that there never really was an option when it came to anything. She could either: be really miserable and in pain, or be slightly _less_ miserable and live on to be in pain _another_ night.

 **'254~'**

And this time, it was "play hide-and-go-seek or _willingly give herself_ to him".

She shudders thinking about it. She would never do that out of her own free will. She hadn't lost her sanity _yet_.

So she ran while he counted to three-hundred. Extra time, " _because humans are so slow"_ , he said.

 **'227~'**

And even though he called it a choice, Yui knew that was deceptive. Laito had set it up so that either way he would win. If she had said no and refused to hide; he would finally have gotten what he really wanted from her. If she decided to play and ended up getting found, he would say that her lack of interest offended him and would punish her severely anyway.

And if she _wasn't_ found, well…

That had never happened before.

And Yui doubted it would happen this time, either.

 **'253~'**

But no matter how pointless it seemed either way, Yui wouldn't give up. She wouldn't let them break her into submission. This was only another trial given by God to test her faith and so she would be strong. She had some spirit in her still.

At least that's what she reminds herself as she runs through the endless halls of the mansion.

It's nighttime, _play time,_ as Laito calls it. He has the advantage here, but she won't let that deter her. She couldn't give up hope.

 **"274~"**

She gasps. _It's not possible_. She had been running away from him, _she knew_ she had been going away from him. So _how could he sound so close?_

She has to rethink her strategy. She has to _go now._

 **'281~'**

Changing her direction, and choosing on a whim, Yui runs down a random hall. The mansion seems to be cloaked in a perpetual state of darkness, but in this moment the darkness stretches farther and darkens further the more she looks. The 'thrill of the game', as Laito would call it, gives the winding hallways a sinister aura.

She turns.

The wallpaper is in a purple trim.

 _Must be near Kanato's room._

 **"289~"**

Yui's heart stops and she wonders if he's somewhere in the walls laughing at the sound. _It can't be that time already?_ Where was she going to go?

There are doors lining the hall, one at the far end that she knows leads to the insidiously childlike Sakamaki brother.

 **'291~'**

Kanato or Laito? Who could she afford to run into? Who was the lesser of two evils?

 _If I run into Kanato, he'll drink my blood, kill me, and turn me into one of his dolls._

 **'293~'**

 _But, if I'm caught by Laito, he'll take my blood, rape me, and then torture me afterwards._

There is no choice.

Yui picks a door on the wall, and runs inside. Rows and columns of eyes stare unblinkingly back at her from their deathly pedestals in the dark.

This is Kanato's wax doll harem.

 **'294~'**

No. Kanato wouldn't be happy if he found her in this room. He would "discipline" her for being in here, Laito would find her and penalize her for losing the game, and then Kanato would punish her again for playing with Laito and not him.

She has to leave-

 **'295~'**

Yui scrambles to get out of the door, but as she's going, she knocks something over, and tumbles on top of it. Opening her eyes frantically, she sees a beautiful brunette with haunting blue eyes laying underneath her. _A doll._ Her face is blank, but her eerie blue eyes taunt Yui. They whisper: " _you're going to end up just like me, Yui. Kanato's gonna get you~"_

 **'2** _ **96~'**_

There's a gaping dent in the doll's face and she knows she's caused it.

 _Kanato's going to kill me._

 **"297~"**

 _I have to leave-_

But there is no time left. There's nowhere to go. She's run out of options.

 **'298~'**

But then...she sees a door. One she's never seen in this room before. Behind a red curtain that hasn't been pulled forward to conceal it completely, lies a door with a golden-gilded knob.

 _Thank you, Lord._

 **'299~'**

Yui crosses the room faster than anything she's ever done in her life, running past a doll that looks sickeningly like her to reach the curtain. She imagines that the counting has gotten quicker in time with her racing heartbeat. His voice echoes in a taunting mantra, and she thinks he's close,

 _Right behind you,_

 _Right behind you,_

And Yui really does feel like he's _right there_ behind her, a breath from her ear whispering:

 **"300."**

She shuts the door as soon as she opens it, and she's inside. Saved, but momentarily.

And when the door shuts, it's like a switch flips. All outside noise is gone, she can no longer hear Laito's voice. It's like another world here.

Behind the mysterious door lays yet another hallway, but shorter, and Yui wonders how big their house could possibly be, to have whole hallways existing behind small doors. Somehow the vibe feels different, spooky almost. It's another climate here and she shivers. She feels strange and...unsettled.

Suddenly an invisible hand seizes her heart in a vice-grip and her knees fall out from the sheer force and shock. Yui grapples onto the wall with one hand, the other grabbing at the skin of her chest in hopes of diminishing the hammering pain in her heart.

 _What was that?_

With a shuddering breath, Yui recovers and stands up on slightly shaky legs.

And then she hears it.

As if on cue, like something out of a horror movie, soft, stuttering sobs ring through the empty air and bounce off the walls, echoing eerily.

The hair prickles on Yui's arms, goosebumps appear, and her voice shakes with fear and uncertainty - _why is everything so creepy in this house? -_ when she calls out:

"Hello?"

And she almost wishes she hadn't, but whatever reply she would be met with would determine her sanity, which was hanging on a thin thread at this point in her stay of the Sakamaki mansion. She has to know.

The crying stops abruptly...

And with no noise to confirm that she hadn't been hallucinating, Yui is left blind; consumed by the darkness of fear.

 _No. I'm done being afraid._

"Hello? Is anybody there?" She says a little bit louder, not caring if Laito heard her and she lost the game. She's tired of living in fear all the time, tired of letting the Sakamakis rule every aspect of her life. She's strong.

 _Time to stop cowering._

But nobody answers her.

Yui looks around at the hall she's in; the pale and peeling purple wallpaper, a frost of dust adding a thin, grimy sheet on the surface of the end tables. In fact, the whole hallway is a snowglobe of dust; spinning and recycling in the air as if no one had opened a window in years.

Yui coughs reflexively, and takes a step forward.

The voice was feminine, that Yui knows. Whoever was crying is probably a girl, a _young girl_ it sounded like.

 _But there are no girls in this house except for me... Could it be...?_

"Please, whoever you are: I don't mean you any harm." Yui tries to make her voice as calm and altruistic as possible. She has to know who this girl is. What if she's like her?

"...who's there...?"

The voice is soft and sweet - like that of a small child - and distinctly surprised. Whoever she is, she sounds vulnerable.

 _She had just been crying._

"My name is Yui, Komori Yui." She says, eyes roaming all around.

"Who are you...?"

 _She's cautious. Of course she is. Why shouldn't she be in a house like this? I can't seem too eager; if I do she might run away._

"I'm a friend." Is the best thing Yui can come up with to not scare her away.

"...you won't hurt me...?"

Yui's heart clenches in empathy, she knows what it's like to have to keep your guard up at all times, even doubting those who reach their hands out in kindness.

"No. I want to help you." And she truly does. "Where are you?"

"I'm trapped, and I can't get out."

Yui's heart stops once more at that sentence, and starts thrumming shallowly in a mixture of anxiety and excitement. She isn't alone in this. _Maybe the brothers kidnapped her, too!_

"I'm a sacrificial bride, I'm trapped in this house, too! Maybe we can help each other out. Where are you? What's keeping you trapped?" Yui's eyes scan each of the walls frantically, walking over to the doors and checking them to see if her voice is coming from within.

"I'm so scared," the voice quivers with emotion, "...it's dark in here..." And somehow her voice echoes like a melodic bell in a church, and Yui finds it hard to pinpoint. _It's like she's everywhere at once._

"But where are you? Can you see anything?" Yui says, trying the first door in the hallway. Grunting in frustration when she realizes:

 _Locked._

"I-I don't know." And when the girl starts crying again, Yui resolves herself.

Yui knows the feelings of hopelessness; she had felt them all too well throughout her stay here. But it's different now. A new surge of hope flows through Yui as she realizes she's not alone anymore.

 _We'll save each other._

"Hold on, I'll help you out. Just keep talking, I'll follow the sound of your voice." Yui says, choosing another door to check.

"Okay… What do I talk about?"

"Maybe describe where you are, it might help me find you."

"It's dark."

Yui looks up.

 _She said that already._

"And cold; the chill seems to sink into your bones and never leave. There is this big, vast emptiness all around me, like I am in a fog of nothing... and your voice just echoes through, softly like a chime. 'Like I am lost at sea,

waves undulating beneath me,

and your voice is a buoy,

a tether to reality.'

Keeping me from slipping away back into the rolling darkness..."

 _How oddly and eerily poetic. What kind of child speaks that way?_

"Uh-huh," Yui wasn't really sure how to respond to that. "Is my voice getting louder?" Yui calls out.

"I- cannot tell..."

"Well, I think I'm starting to hear your voice better," Yui says, putting her ear to another door. "Keep talking."

" 'The cold pervades every crevice and crack' ," the child begins again as if uninterrupted, speaking almost to herself. " 'It comes from within, lives inside, and never goes back.

A chill up your spine,

a coldness in your heart.

When you breathe, it infects your lungs and never departs,

until you're cold all the way through. A deathly chill, it stays, a constant companion.

And you're suddenly a cold casket, sombre and lovely,

heat has deserted you completely.

But not youth. That stays for eternity.'

You rot inside and not out, in the guise of peace. Only your lonely spectre to haunt the halls with and without sound.

They don't hear your cries; you're dead. And no one sees; they're dead too, just not like you."

 _How...morbid._

"Did you... write that yourself?" Yui asks tentatively, a chill crawling down her back like a small spider. _Did it get colder in here?_

"Did you like it? Mummy used to. I've had a lot of time, being alone and trapped by myself for so long. It's a bit maddening, really..."

Yui didn't really want to think too much of it.

 _...I think...I've found you._

Yui grabs the handle of a door nearest the end of the hall.

 _Gotcha!_

Yui opens it, the desire to jump in excitement doing battle with the need to shiver, "Are you in here?"

Dark purple walls. A beautiful armoire-wardrobe and matching vanity. A table covered in a gossamer blanket of meticulous design. Boxes neatly arranged taking up space on the floor. No windows. No trapped girl. And oddly enough; not a single speck of dust covering even an inch of any part of the room. In fact, if not for the boxes, it could be an extra bedroom with how clean and organized the entire thing is.

"Hello? Are you- in here...?" Yui calls out uncertainly.

Because if the mystery girl's going to be anywhere, it should be here; the room that's most lived in, right?

 _What is this place?_

Walking over to the vanity just by her ear on the wall of the entryway, Yui glances curiously at the items in the box resting on top. A rattle. Gloves. Toy giraffe. Plastic rings. A blue-and-white scarf. Mostly nondescript items, but a few things jump out at Yui; 'Little Women' - a _human_ book - and... _four tubes of chocolate lipstick…?_

 _How bizarre... The chocolate lipstick could've belonged to any one of their mothers, but I can't see anyone in this house reading 'Little Women'. It's a book written by a mortal, for_ little girls! _Who could this stuff belong to?_

Yui gets up, set on determining just that, and walks over to the wardrobe.

 _Whoever these items predominantly belong to must have their clothes in the wardrobe, right?_

She opens the doors, forgetting that she was originally looking for someone, forgetting about Laito and everything else and finds...dresses. A whole row overflowing with dresses. Ball gowns, dinner parties, evening and formal wear, sun-dresses, nightgowns, coat-dresses, and all of them lavish and glaringly expensive. But more than that, there is one other thing that sticks out about the dresses:

They are all child-sized.

Closing the doors and wondering what this could possibly mean, Yui backtracks, eyes looking for the door...

 _This isn't my business, I shouldn't be in here._

...When her eyes catch one of the boxes on the floor.

 _What's that there? Wait a second..._

Opening the box, Yui finds a collection of paintings, depicting the very familiar figures of the brothers, namely the triplets. But there is one irregularity appearing in _every. Single. One_ of the paintings _._ A little girl with long purple hair and eyes to match. A little girl that looks **just like Kanato.**

Yui pulls out a random painting, in it are the obvious: Ayato, Kanato, and Laito. But there's another person standing with them, in the middle next to Kanato. The little girl with the purple hair. Yui turns the painting over in her hands, heart pounding loudly. Written in the corner in black ink, near the frame: "Ayato, Kanato, Chouko, and Laito Sakamaki (left to right)".

Yui drops the frame.

 _They have a sister…?_

She frantically picks up another one, this one holding two females; one she'd seen in visions and the other she'd never seen before until just now. Flipping the painting to see the inscription on the back, she reads the names: "Chouko and Cordelia Sakamaki". _The painting is dated to thirty years ago, and yet the woman looks only in her twenties, and the girl couldn't have been more than ten years old._

Yui stares at the painting, entranced by the obvious beauty of the women. She has never seen two women more beautiful in her life, though when compared with the bitterly cold yet seductive look of the woman; the beaming child with her bright eyes and innocent smile looks infinitely more enchanting. Something about the woman who had her hand on the child's shoulder was so distant and cold, and next to the vibrancy of the beautiful child, one would hardly notice the woman stood just behind her.

The woman also had long purple tresses like the girl and Kanato, yet her eyes were a bright chartreuse, the picture of Ayato and Laito's.

 _She must be the mother of the triplets… Cordelia…_ Yui looks back at the smiling little girl in the painting… _Chouko Sakamaki..._

 _But they can't have a sister. Why haven't I ever heard of her or seen her in the paintings of the main hall?_

She doesn't understand why it means so much to her, but it does. Maybe she can find a written document proving the girl is really their sister. It's a long shot, but maybe. Trying to do just that, Yui walks over to the table and pulls off the sheet to look through any possible box resting on the surface, but she's surprised. There are no boxes on the table, because it isn't a table.

Yui gasps at the sight, stifling herself from shrieking as she wants to.

There, on a raised platform, is a casket with a glass lid containing the body of the violette girl from the painting.

Lying on top of a thousand white roses is a dead Chouko Sakamaki.

Her skin is as white as the roses she rests on, as white as any vampire would be. A deathly pallor. The kind of color that humans can only achieve through the ultimate means of an eternal sleep; death. And yet her lips are as pink as a blushing rosebud, as if the woman had merely fallen asleep after applying a coat of lipstick.

 _And she is certainly a woman._

This is not the little eleven-year-old girl from the painting thirty years ago. This girl was a butterfly who's made full metamorphosis into a young woman every bit as gorgeous - and even more so - than her mother. Sweeping cheekbones, elegantly sloping nose, flawless ivory skin, long and luscious purple hair cascading down the length of the coffin like velvet - _and decidedly_ not _flat chested -_ she was a woman that Yui could envy.

 _She looks like an angel: pale and glowing, lying dead in a tomb of darkness and isolation._

 _What happened to you?_

Yui can't think of what could have caused this. Looking at the casket more closely, she sees a heavy golden lock chaining the lid resolutely shut, and an inscription engraved onto a golden plate next to it, reading: _**My Most Precious Doll.**_

 _But, that doesn't make sense._

Yui is the daughter of a clergyman. She has seen enough burials to know that caskets don't normally have nor do they even _need_ a lock. Especially one so bulky and substantial.

 _Why would anyone lock a coffin?_

 _It's not as if there are any grave-robbers around to mess with the body...?_

 _...And it's not like the corpse is just going to get up and escape?_

 _Unless…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Unless she's not dead._

Yui looks at the woman in horror and alarm for any signs of movement. Though she thinks she sees the rising and falling of the woman's chest, it is the ever-so-slight fog on the inside of the glass lid that alerts Yui to the fact that this woman is still breathing.

 _She's not dead… Oh my God!_

Yui taps on the glass three times, frenetic and scared.

 _She's been kept here in this room with all of their trash like a discarded toy!_

Yui's eyes tear up as the dread sinks heavily into her.

 _Oh my God... what if_ they _locked her in here?_

Terror rushing through her in a deadly tidal wave as she shrieks: "Chouko? Chouko?!"

"Oh Little Bitch~?" A taunting voice echoes from somewhere down in the hallway. "Don't you know that crying out your location completely defeats the purpose of playing hide and seek?~" _Laito's voice_. "Or did you want me to find you?~" A chortle accompanying the last remark, rings through the tense silence.

Yui's heart stops again and she wonders if she'll die young from a heart attack, what with all the terrifying suspense in the house. It's too much for anyone.

 _Oh no._

 _He'll find me here._

 _If they really did lock her up then I wasn't supposed to see this. I can't let him catch me in this room!_

And so Yui throws the covering onto the casket, and hastily runs out of the room, closing the door as well. _Come on, come on!_ But when she turns around and gets to the opening of the hall; Laito stands there waiting for her.

A sly smile appears on his face as she walks out and sees him. "Nfu fu~ It appears that you've lost the game, Bitch-chan." he says looking her up and down. "You _naughty girl,_ hiding in Kanato's private wing~ What? You want him to punish you too? Nfu fu~"

He cocks his head at her, smiles his cat-like grin, leaning all up against the doorway as he continues: "I must say, this isn't a very good hiding spot, hmm? Hiding out in the middle of a hallway doesn't seem very smart~" He's laughing at her, but that's okay.

As long as he was laughing at her, then he wasn't paying attention to the fact that she went somewhere she wasn't supposed to go.

Maybe she can get away with this yet.

But his eyes don't seem to stray. They fixate on her face curiously... He's staring too long.

 _What is he looking at?_

She gulps.

"No~ hiding in plain sight where anyone could see is too stupid, even for you… Where did you go?" His piercing green eyes never seem to lose their interest in her face - in fact, he's barely blinking - and that's when she realizes he is looking at her and scrutinizing her reactions.

 _The silence is dragging too long_ , she has to say something.

"I-I-" Yui's eyes dart everywhere, scrambling for some sort of explanation. His eyes narrow.

And then, looking for some sort of explanation for her odd behavior, then they move. And when they fix on something behind her and widen, that's when she knows she didn't close the door all the way.

 _No, no, no!_

He takes an audible breath and she can even hear it enter his lungs. And then he advances.

 _No-!_

"What were you doing in there?" His voice is the only thing seemingly kind about him as he strides over to her. She's in trouble.

Yui backs up two steps before being sharply accosted by her shirt and lifted three inches from the ground. Furious green eyes burn into hers with their gaze. And though calm, his voice is no longer kind: "Answer me quickly before I become angry. You don't want to make me angry, do you, Bitch-chan?"

She has never seen him so full of genuine emotion, making her momentarily shocked beyond words. His severity and intensity are the two signs that tell her that this is not playful Laito. Playful Laito is teasing, seductive, easy to please and appease. _He_ has a one-track mind.

This is a different man entirely; a _stranger_ whom she doesn't know how to reason with.

 _Tell him what he's looking for. Show him you weren't doing any harm._

"I-I didn't mean anything by it-"

" **That's not an answer**." His voice isn't loud, but it's deadly in its seriousness. This Laito plays no games.

"I was just looking for somewhere to hide!"

But then… suddenly his ferocity seems to evaporate; the lines of his face easing, and his shoulders relaxing slightly… His eyes, however, are still steely, accusative, and ready to rip her open if she says anything he doesn't like. His eyes are poised, waiting to unearth his scarier and more serious alter-ego.

 _Thin ice, Yui..._

"Are you sure that's all you were doing, _Bitch-chan_?" His words are biting, and for some reason his customary pet moniker for her stings with vengeance.

But she still replies:

"Y-yes." Her eyes are tearful as he drops her to the floor and steps over her form to storm into the room. Probably checking the validity of her words.

A mess on the ground, Yui doesn't even get up to try and get a glimpse of his expression when in the room, still struggling to calm her riotous heart. Though he made her out to be a despicable intruder, she knows without a doubt that she would feel like exactly that if she tried to peek in.

It seems... _wrong_ to look in on something so obviously personal and intimate. But that didn't mean she wasn't curious.

Then he storms back out just as quickly and temperately as he had stormed in, this time though his glare is a bit less hostile. But there still remains some unknown emotion in his eyes.

He glances at her from her position on the ground, still seeming no more friendly or reassuring, which makes her nervously cry as he pulls her up by the arm: "What are you doing?-!"

"Get up. We need to move." He barely looks at her now.

 _Move?_ "Y-you're not going to punish me..?" Yui stutters. _He certainly doesn't look like he's in the mood for blood.  
_  
"You've ruined my appetite." No jokes, just a statement. He shrugs the question off nonchalantly, as if both his mind and his heart are in another place.

"Then where are we going?" But still, she dreads the answer.

He finally looks at her, and this time he smiles, showcasing his sharp incisors: "To dinner."

Her heart sinking in her chest with a sharp sense of dread, Yui breathes slowly to calm her nerves, feeling anxiety begin to overwhelm her mind, she almost thinks she imagines the little girl's voice crying out to her again, this time screaming;

" _No! Don't leave me, please don't leave me!_ _ **MOMMY**_!"

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: I'm not really used to writing in the present tense, but since there are going to be flashbacks in future chapters I'm gonna put those into past tense and the current story in present. So if there are any mistakes on the tenses (which I know there are) you can either ignore them, or if you're feeling OCD you can tell me and I'll fix them when I have the time. Updates will probably be all over the place, so stay tuned!**

 **Ciao bellas!**

 **P.S. And if you have a chance to leave a review, answer me this: how do you feel about the length of the chapter?**


	2. Chapter 2

**No.2: "Eat Your Heart Out"**

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

The slight scrape of expensive utensils against their equally exorbitant counterparts - the plates - are the only sounds to be heard. Such a simple, normally quiet action becomes deafening in the silence of the room. Dinners at the Sakamaki Mansion were always a silent affair. Despite growing up with each other, none of the brothers related to one another, and even the organizer of such formal obligations, the second son Reiji, had nothing to say at the table. After all of their immortal lives lived, they still shared no common interests.

Except the sacrificial brides, of course.

And on such occasions where a bride was present, one might even find some conversation.

Like tonight.

"So~ I have some news, everybody…" Laito starts off from his seat in the middle of the table, his tone somewhat playful, but his eyes sharpened, posture more tense and alert than usual.

But Kanato still whispers conspiratorially with his Teddy. Shu's eyes remain shut. Reiji continues to eat meticulously. Ayato grins fiendishly at Yui as she shifts uncomfortably in her seat. It's only Subaru who makes an uncommitted 'hn'.

"Bitch-chan went into _that_ room," Laito goes on as nobody responds.

The platinum-haired girl stiffens in her chair, posture tense like an old clock wound back too far, and flinches as Ayato gives her a predatory smirk.

"T'ch! Again?" Subaru grunts out irate, seemingly speaking for the whole house.

"No, not _that_ room," Laito pauses ominously, smile just a bit too tight to be believable, "... _ **the other one**_."

The temperature of the room plummets 50 degrees and Yui feels her lips tremble as a chill ghosts up her spine. Suddenly the vampires sit too perfectly, too straight in a way that looks forced, and even the sound of knives scraping porcelain plates stands still.

And everyone now pays attention.

And Yui is still as well, caged in by the thorns of unspoken accusations all around, knowing that any wrong movement, even the slightest, could cause the infliction of the pain that her captors so desire to see. As the light gets dimmer by the second their eyes glow with the red color of blood they call for. Her blood.

She almost looks at the doors marking exits on the walls, but catches herself just in time; when they were this angry the chase that they so enjoyed would be seen as disobedience and would serve to make their tempers worse. In this situation only punishment would please them. Once again, the blonde is trapped in a corner...perhaps she always has been…

"...How dare you…?" Ayato's voice is no louder than a whisper, so Yui almost doesn't hear it, he's so astounded. The great Ore-sama had, for a moment, been shocked beyond words... But then he's back to his former, fiery glory, jumping out of his chair and straight to his feet, hands hitting the table as he hisses at her: "How _f*cking dare you_ …! You had no right-!"

"Let's not jump to conclusions before all the facts are presented." Reiji is quick to cut in, his back slightly hunched uncharacteristically, the only sign that he is uncomfortable. But unnerved as he feels, he is also ready to spring to action. He turns to the fedora-wearing pervert sitting lost-in-thought across from him. "Please explain to us how this transpired, Laito."

Normally Laito is happy to know a piece of information, a secret that nobody else knows. Normally he likes holding information over others, having complete control of the room as he baits his audience with their own curiosity, and has them on the edge of their seats waiting anxiously to know the secret that only _he_ can give to them. Normally it's _fun_ to make great announcements during dinner and watch as the drama he orchestrated unfolds. Today is not such a day. For all he pretends, the announcement was not one he was happy to make. It brought up too many memories long buried.

"We were playing hide and seek and she just...wandered in," Laito says, fake smile still on his face but slowly slipping, he speaks calmly and slowly. No one notices how his hands twitch around his glass on the table, or that his eyes stare out at nothing.

"Why?!" Ayato sneers at Laito in accusation, as if he is the one at fault, but seeing Laito's curiously blank face instead turns to snarl at the blonde girl who is more likely to give him the reaction he wants.

"U-uh-" The only female's face takes on a terrified expression as the words choke in her throat and come out in broken stutters. She looks at her table mat to steady herself, nervously wiping her clammy, shaking hands on the fabric of her skirt.

 _Calm down, just breathe!_

"Answer him!" The albino's voice hits her ears as aggressively and suddenly as a stack of plates shattering against the ground. Her champagne eyes dart up wildly, pleading in the face of her predators like a frightened rabbit.

"I-I was just trying to find somewhere to hide!" But no matter how she justified herself she would always be guilty. And punishable.

"And you thought you could go into my rooms? That that gave you the right to trespass into _my room_? **I'll kill you**!" She feels the clawing grip of a hand strangling her windpipe before she sees whom it belongs to. She discerns the blurring form of Kanato with his venomous purple eyes glaring down at her in a crazy combination of rage and excitement. She recognizes the lifeless black gaze of his Teddy before white stars run through her vision like spots on an old film.

"I-I'm- s-or-ry-!"

 _How much tighter can he grip before his fingers go through my neck?-!_

"Enough. Kanato, calm down," Reiji says, placing a firm hand on the purple boy's thin shoulder, his words belying the true complacency he felt towards the whole scene. It really mattered very little if she was asphyxiated. Truly it was the disorderly conduct and disrespect for dinner etiquette that concerned him more. He felt no emotions towards her "situation".

But still incensed, Kanato slaps Reiji's hand away with the one he wasn't using to hold Teddy, and hisses at Reiji like a feral cat. Reiji's eyes narrow into cool red slits of magma. Yui is forgotten as she crumples to the ground like a useless porcelain doll, no one caring if her face shatters on the way down.

"Shut up, Reiji! It's not her business, and it's not yours either!" Territorial and belligerent, Ayato jumps into the battle as well in a rare show of support for his fellow triplet.

No one hears or acknowledges the loud sound of the girl coughing up her lungs on the floor, back arching painfully, face going from deathly blue to chalk white, and breathing like she'd just been drowning.

"Now, now, Ayato. No need to be so rough to Reiji, he's not the one at fault. **Little Bitch is** ," Laito says absently from his position still at the table. His head makes no move to observe the scene and his eyes only peer blankly into the bottom of the wine glass in his hands. Only his voice, lacking of its customary mirth, appears to be present in the moment.

"What did you see in there," Reiji demands bringing the attention of the room back to the blonde sputtering on the floor.

"N-nnothing." Yui stutters against her will again in the face of the row of glowing red eyes surrounding her in the dimness of the room.

"The room was untouched when I looked in," says Laito tonelessly with no expression whatsoever.

"There, she didn't see anything." Reiji was always one to revel in having the last word and final decision in disputes and matters concerning punishment.

But nothing is settled for Ayato.

"I don't care what she saw, I'll kill her!" Ayato peers at Yui from across the table.

"Now is not the time for rash decisions, we will decide what shall be done later," Reiji goes on further, patience waning with every heated word from the offspring of that _deplorable_ green-eyed woman.

"This does not concern you," Kanato clenches his Teddy closer to his small chest, practically grinding his fangs together.

"But it does," Reiji glares back, his words left unspoken but apparent to all:

 _Everything under the roof of this house concerns me._

"No it _doesn't_."

"Reiji's right, now is not the time to make any quick decisions. It's not as if we can kill her anyway, even if we wanted to," the fedora-wearing pervert adopts a thoughtful look as he tosses the velvet liquid back into his throat, glass hitting the table, empty.

"Exactly," Reiji looks curiously at the red-head's attitude from behind his black frames, before turning to the rest of the group. "Now, can we all be seated?"

Looking as if he was furiously debating the validity of his triplet's words before deeming it a fruitless effort, the takoyaki-lover grits out the word "Fine," before pulling his chair out noisily and sitting down with an annoyed huff.

They all return to their seats.

"Now," Reiji says, folding his hands articulately in a show of self-importance. His red eyes roam the room to be sure everyone is paying attention, before snagging and fixating furiously on the blonde woman still on the ground. "Miss Komori, get up!" His disapproving gaze follows her all the way to her seat and she feels it burn steadily into her even as she keeps her eyes at the table.

"Humans...absolutely _deplorable!"_ The man with black hair mutters sharply before clearing his throat to speak again: "As I was saying, you are _not_ to go in that room again. As you have very clearly overstepped your boundaries, you will be receiving punishment as well-"

"That's not good enough," Ayato cuts in.

"Agreed. Teddy and I want to punish her personally."

"I'll join you," Laito speaks, looking up suddenly, no sadism or voyeurism in his voice as he does so.

Reiji nods but his eyebrow twitches; the only sign that their interruption annoyed him. "You may also do so, _but only after I am through._ And you may not kill her. She will be brought to you later. Agreed?"

"Fine," the triplets give their consent.

Reiji looks around at the dinner table, at the food in varying states of disarray and wholeness, before sighing lightly, and adjusting his glasses with his middle finger; "You may go."

The brothers leave the room quickly, the triplets glaring at Yui who shivers as she stays behind, already knowing what will transpire after they go.

The blonde girl sits quietly in her seat when everyone clears the room, praying to God that her punishment won't be so bad. A chuckling noise catches her attention. Alone now, sitting at the table Reiji takes off his glasses, cleans them, sighs, and puts them away completely. Then he cocks a half-smile, crooked and patronizing, at the ground before looking up at her with menacing crimson eyes:

"I've been waiting for this."

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

It's only three weeks later after the incident that Yui can walk about without being in crippling pain. And though the physical pain is gone, the mental, psychological, emotional pain is ever present. Yui Komori forgot about the voice of the mysterious little girl, but would never forget the punishments she endured as a result.

 _He led me to his room, my legs trembled with fear all the while… But when we arrived he said nothing, didn't look at me even once, just sat at his desk and looked over paperwork… For ten minutes I stood still awaiting my fate, thinking the very worst, at the complete mercy of a man whose face gave away nothing… Until finally he stood. He reached into his desk and pulled out a small vial filled with a blue liquid._

 _Calling me to stand in front of his desk, he told me to hold out my hands. I received the bottle in them. Looking up, worried, to ask what's in it, I was silenced by the unrelenting coldness in his red-hot eyes._

 _My throat completely dry, I drank it all…_

 _Nothing… I felt nothing happen..._

 _I looked into his eyes curiously, this time unafraid as I was so astounded to not be in pain. He stared back at me with a steely gaze betraying nothing._

" _Hold out your hands," he called again._

 _Was I going to be given another drug, maybe this time to cause some reaction with the other?_

 _I held out my hands… My knees hit the ground faster than the pain could catch up with me, faster than I could scream. And I_ _ **screamed**_ _. Tears blurred my eyes until I could see nothing before me… Nothing but the angry, red blood dripping from my hands, my hands shaking so hard that through my clouded eyes I could barely process that they were my own. My hands that felt like their nerves were ripped apart, like a bullet had torn through them as fast as lightning, leaving only pain in its wake._

" _You moved."_

 _I could barely hear him over my stifled cries. Barely conceive him over the ungodly pain that ripped through my body. All coming from my hands._

" _I was going to let you off with ten, but because you moved now you have thirteen. Get up."_

 _I didn't know if I could. My legs didn't feel like they could support me._

" _If I have to repeat myself then it will be twenty."_

 _I made it to my feet somehow._

" _The solution you just drank is one that amplifies pain. This is your punishment. You are to stand there with your hands out and count for me, to thirteen. If you move the count goes higher. Do you understand?"_

 _I nodded._

 _Lighting struck, another bullet through my hands nearly brought me to my knees again._

"Do you understand _?" He said again._

 _When I opened my mouth, I realized why I didn't want to speak in the first place: I had bitten my tongue on the first strike. It was bleeding. It hurt._

" _Y-es." My voice didn't sound like it belonged to me._

 _I saw a silver glint in his hands: he held a heavy ring full of keys faintly speckled with my blood._

" _Good. Now count," Reiji said._

 _A flash I couldn't see. Then pain._

" _T-two."_

Though now recovered, Yui's hands still hold scratches from where the keys ripped into her skin. They're violent and ugly like the person who gave them to her. What got her through that ordeal, after her voice was raw and hoarse from crying, after she could barely see straight, was her Lord. She kept him in her prayers, reciting over and over in her mind between the blows;

' **Lord, make my trunk and branches so mightily tough and impervious to wind and drought that I never cease to bear the fruit of gentleness (Galatians 5:23; James 3:17; 1 Peter 3:4).'**

And so she would be tough no matter what came at her, she would remember that God has a plan for her and that she should never doubt.

Sometimes though, she wondered what that plan was. Why was she placed to live in this house with these vampires, anyway? Was she meant to learn some lesson from them? Did God send her to redeem them?

 _That can't be it,_ she thinks as she walks down the hallways of their mansion in a moment of rare peace and solitude. _Can they even be redeemed after everything they've done? They've made it clear to me before that they are not part of God's children. They don't even_ believe _in a God…_

" _Are you going to Scarborough Faire?_ ~"

Yui stops in her tracks.

A song carries on the breeze of the wind. A sweet, melodic voice lighter than air glides by softly.

 _Kanato once sang that song._

" _Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme~"_

 _But wait… That voice is too high to be Kanato's...too..._ feminine…

 _Oh my God…!_

Yui follows the voice, half-suicidal, half wary. It's coming from a different direction than before.

" _Remember me to one who lived there~"_

Yui stops at the base of what appears to be the set of a long, winding staircase spiraling up into the darkness, the voice spiraling up with it. Yui starts to climb. Higher and higher, when she thinks the stairs will end they climb even higher still.

She reaches an ornate wooden door, unlocked. The voice is nearer than ever, it _has_ to be coming from the other side. It sounds _just like_ the voice of the girl she encountered three weeks ago. Before her punishments.

" _She once was a true love of mine~"_

Feeling a perplexing sense of deja vu, she opens the door with bated breath. Inside is the clean, undisturbed room of a young woman complete with lavender walls, a queen-sized bed with matching sheets, and a gorgeous glass coffin containing the late Chouko Sakamaki.

And as the blonde teen stares at the body of the woman, she can't help but think that this was where it all went wrong before.

" _She was once a-_ Who's there?..." The voice of the child continues, even as Yui sees no child in the room and stares at the motionless body of the woman Chouko Sakamaki, _who is not dead,_ Yui reminds herself. Even throughout the weeks of torment she still remembers the shock of seeing someone she thought to be dead breathe as if she'd merely been asleep. "...Mommy…?"

Yui gasps, _that voice…_ "No, not your mommy. My name is Yui," she says, still frozen at her place by the door.

"Oh...Hello Yui Komori. Come in…" the child says once again. But Yui still can't quite believe it all.

"How do you know my name?"

A high-pitched giggle rings throughout the air. "You told it to me. Remember? We've met before...in a way."

 _Inhale._ That makes the blonde's heart pause.

Yui exhales, "So you're not dead."

This time the childish giggle sounds more sardonic, bitter even. _Not like a child._

"No, I've never been dead, _they_ wouldn't allow me to be at peace."

Yui closes the door and walks into the room, an epiphany suddenly hitting her.

"So, it was you! You were-"

"The one whom you heard that time. Forgive me, I don't know how long it's been; time ceases to have any meaning when you've no reason to live."

Yui reaches the bed, looking down at the coffin in a trance. None of this is making sense to her:

 _Why are you trapped in here?_

"Why did you call out to me?"

"I didn't. I didn't think anyone would hear me, so I was content to cry out my sorrows like a child. No one has ever heard me before, so I never imagined someone would."

The blonde keeps trying to imagine the beautiful woman sleeping in the case before her waking up and speaking with the voice of this child. But no matter how she tries to reconcile the two, the child she hears and the woman she sees seem like two separate entities that never cross. _Can they really be the same person?_

And yet, the further she walked into the room, the closer she got to the coffin, the less the voice sounded like a little child. Yui can barely see the resemblance now. Now the voice sounds deeper, calmer with few traces linking it back to the one she had heard before.

"You don't sound like the person I heard," Yui says suspiciously.

"And what did I sound like?" This voice is calmer, smoother, yet sharper. It's more _knowing._

"I thought...I thought you were a child..." Yui frowns, _why does she seem so different all of a sudden?_

The girl- the _woman_ laughs.

"I'm sure you know by now that my... _estranged_ siblings are much older than they look. I, however, have been cursed with slumber of the body and stagnation of the mind; I am almost exactly the age I appear in body, and precisely that age in mind. While time has run on for them, it has frozen completely for me. If I sounded like a child when I cried, it's because I _was_ a child when I died."

 _What? She… died? No...that can't be..!_

"You said you were alive," Yui can physically see the puffs of air hit the glass on the inside of the casket. _There's no way she died. She has to be alive!_

"Only literally."

"If you didn't want me to find you, why were you upset that I left? You called me your...'mommy'."

"It's very lonely here, what with no one ever hearing me. And your presence was very...maternal, very _soothing_...It reminded me of someone I lost..." The woman's voice took on a softness that spoke of her true feelings.

 _Someone she lost…?_

 _Wait..._

"It was your mother that was lost, wasn't it?"

There's a pause in the air where the woman doesn't speak, where Yui can only hear the cycle of her own breathing, and the human almost forgets that she's not alone in the room.

"I lost _my mother_ , that's true, but she was _not_ lost. She was murdered," the heaviness of her words, the punctuation in her voice is raw and tender. This isn't a simple subject for her, Yui can tell.

Yui's heart clenches in her chest and a cold feeling goes through her body. She had never known her mother, but still: "I'm so very sorry."

"So am I, Yui. That makes only us two... So I spend my days weeping and singing out my sorrows to the empty air. I don't know why you heard me, Yui, but the next time you do, pay me no mind and walk on. Continue on with your life and forget me; the living have no business conversing with the dead," the once light voice sinks to monotony, ominous and quite lifeless.

Yui is stunned.

"But...you're not dead-!"

"But I'm not exactly alive either, am I?"

"Well, no, but that doesn't mean you should give up. Every life is sacred and precious!"

"Even the life of a vampire, a monster?"

"I...I don't believe you are a monster," Yui says quietly.

"I may not be like my brothers, but I'm not innocent either. I've killed people." Yui is silent then. "Besides, what does it matter to you? You don't care, I'm just a corpse in a coffin you found."

 _She's so distant all of a sudden...she's trying to push me away…_

 _How can I stand by as this poor lady wastes away here?_

"I do care, I wanted to help! When I heard your voice...you sounded so lonely and scared, I wanted to help you-"

"You can't," the violet woman's voice cuts in strongly. "There's nothing to be done for me, I'm trapped here..."

Yui looks down at her lying undisturbed in her nightgown, locked in her transparent coffin:

"I don't believe that. Surely if you can talk to me then there's a way to wake you up."

"I doubt it, there's almost nothing that would work..." Her voice lacked any tone, _any hope._

"But surely there is something you could try...?"

"...Maybe. I do not know...it is probably nothing, but perhaps there _is_ something I know of..." The woman trails off unsurely...

"See, there you go-!" Yui encourages.

"But you would have to help me."

An unsteady feeling crawls into the depths of Yui's stomach. A butterfly expanding, brushing, flurrying her stomach to nausea.

"Oh. I-I don't know about that..." it sounds a bit suspicious to the blonde, her own voice reflecting that suspicion.

"Didn't you say you wanted to help me?" In the woman's mind, the answer is all so simple.

Yui starts at that; "I did, but-"

"But that was before you knew who I was? Before you knew I was a vampire? Their _sister_?" the woman accuses her lightly. "And now you won't help me. You say I'm not a monster for something I can't help being born into, but you'd condemn me to nothingness for it even after you gave your word," her voice is steely and sharp. She's angry.

Yui sputters; "It's not that, but-"

"But you just can't trust me... You don't know whether to believe me or not, do you?" It sounds like an accusation, Yui can only imagine the look on her face if she was awake.

"Well-"

"Yui, I hate my brothers just as much as you do. I promise we are _not_ close and we are _nothing_ alike. They locked me in here to rot, made me a prisoner of my own mind. Can't you see that? If we were close, why would they leave me up here?"

"I can see that, but it says ' **Precious** ' right here," Yui is referring to the inscription on the casing; _**My Most Precious Doll.**_

Another tense silence begins thrumming in the air.

"...My mother wrote that... right before they killed her. They killed her and when I was the only one that could see what a horrible thing they had done, they locked me away to keep me quiet. That is why you have to get me out."

 _That sounds so horrible. But..._

"But what if-"

"What if I'm worse than my brothers? What kind of monster would I be if I did that? Hurt the person who's helped me? No, that's what they would do, that's their game. _They_ are the evil ones, they killed our mother, I only wanted justice for her. I am not like them. If you help me, Yui, I will get you out of here."

"What...?"

"If you get me out of my binds, I will get you out of this house."

 _Hold on...wait a minute-_

"I thought you wanted justice for your mother?"

"I do, but my brothers are unreasonable, _diabolical_. There is no justice here, I must go somewhere else if I want to get things done properly. But first I have to get out of here and get away from these people, and if you help me, I can take you with me. Only after getting my life together, can I go and seek justice. So, Yui... what do you say?"

Yui takes a long look at the pale woman resting peacefully in the glass case. She breathes out, trying to calm the unrest in her heart and be excited about the prospect of getting out of the house. _This_ is _the opportunity I've been waiting for..._

 _I might never get a chance like this again._  
"...Okay. I'll do it. I'll help you."

"You won't regret it. Now get me out of here!"

Yui looks at the sturdy glass casing, the heavy golden lock keeping it firmly shut. "There's one problem though; you're currently stuck in a casket and it's locked. Not to mention the fact that you're sleeping."

"We will worry about the sleeping part later. How big is the lock?"

 _The size of my fist._ "Pretty big."

"You will need bolt cutters. You can get them from Subaru."

 _That won't work;_ "Subaru wouldn't give them to me."

"So take them," the vampire simply says, sending Yui into a panic.

"I can't steal from Subaru, do you know what he'd do if he found out?!"

"You have to. They are the only pair in the house. We are vampires, remember? None of us have ever used bolt cutters, because we have super strength. Subaru only happens to have them because he gardens and he has a vast collection of human tools which he sometimes uses for its maintenance. Yui, there is no other way to get me out if, as you say, there is a lock in the way. Okay? Do you understand?"

 _It's seeming inevitable. There's no other way… But if I do this: I'm free._

"Okay," Yui resolves herself.

"And even if he does find out, we will be so far away by that time that it will not even matter. Okay, Yui?"

 _We'll be so far away...never have to see them again… Freedom..._

"Okay. I got it."

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So when I originally published this story 3 weeks ago, I had already written up to chapter 6, and since I planned to update every week I figured that I'd never have to worry about missing an update because I'd always be ahead. The only problem is that I've gotten out of my writing rhythm. Long story short I'm still writing chapter 6... The good thing is that I have an outline for it, so with any luck I'll get it together and write it so that this story never hitches or slows!**

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

" _I've never met a girl like you, Bitch-chan~"_

Yui walks quickly through the vast halls of the Sakamaki mansion, making sure not to let her anxiety and excitement show in her steps.

She's on her way to Subaru's room to get the bolt cutters. When she has the bolt cutters, she can unlock the casket. Once the casket is unlocked, then Chouko-san will be freed. And when Chouko-san is freed then... _so is Yui._

Then she can go home and see her father again, maybe even find out the truth to what _really_ happened! Because there was no way, there's _no way_ that he gave her up! He would never do that! He loves her! He couldn't!

" _You're truly such a fool~ You don't even know when you've been deceived," Laito cooed in my ear and I jumped back, startled. The ropes dug even deeper into my wrists._

" _But that's just a part of the fun~" He got even closer to my ear, his breath sending shivers through me and rocking my spine. His lips brushed the shell of the helix with the softest caress, like we were lovers. As if he had tied me to the bed in an act of passion and not sadistic aggression. He had me precisely where he wanted me. We were right up against each other._

" _That's how you'll know I've broken you," he whispered it like it was a tender secret that only I could know. "I'll be the lie that you believe in despite knowing all the while, I'll break you and you'll_ _ **love me**_ _for it," and then the whispers turned sinister._

" _And when your pathetic human heart gives out and your weak body finally has nothing left to give me, I will hold you just like this," he demonstrated with a caress down my body._

 _He took ahold of my jaw._

" _Look you in the eyes and let you know that it was_ _ **I**_ _that destroyed you, and_ _ **you**_ _that let me. You will be both accomplice_ and _victim. And then you will have given me all the power and I will have truly made you_ _ **nothing**_ _as you were always meant to be." Serrated green eyes tore through the barriers concealing my soul and left me completely bare to his gaze. I felt naked as his breath left a trail as it wrapped around my neck like a noose and he was preaching sins into my ear._

" _And then, you will be_ _ **less**_ _than nothing, because I will have drained your life-blood completely and you will be_ _ **dead**_ _." And he punctuated that by biting sharply into my ear, piercing it with his fangs._

 _There was a sickly SQUISH sound._

 _I screamed and thrashed. But I couldn't move. There was nothing I could do. There was no mercy, I was sure I now had gaping, bloody holes going through my ear._

" _But until that glorious time comes, we shall just have to settle for reenactments. Here, see; just like this~"_

 _His face traveled down from my ear to my neck, fangs dragging, carving an agonizing trail of red and ripping my skin open all the while, before he stopped at my clavicle._

 _My heart rammed against the cage of my ribs. It wanted to escape my chest and be free from this torment. But my green-eyed jailer wouldn't let that happen on his watch, not until he was through. Not until he could rip it from my chest and crush it in his own bare hands._

" _Do you know why vampires always go for the neck? Because blood can be most efficiently be drawn out from there. It's faster, easier, and yields a larger blood flow. It's a classic. But I don't like it. Too easy...too_ predictable."

 _My heart stopped in my chest. It knew better than my foolish mind that there was no escape._

" _I want to have to really_ _ **suck**_ _to get my prize, and I want you to see it, to watch while I take it from you. No, there's no pain and no true pleasure in letting either of us take the easy way out. Something as_ **intimate** _as this should be prolonged,_ **savored**." _He said this before backing away from my neck and grabbing my hand lightly._

 _He lifted it parallel to my watery eyes, pressing a gentle kiss on the back, fiendish green irises stalking me all through the motion, imitating the gentleman that I knew he could never be. He easily pried my fingers apart and threaded them together with his in what would appear to any bystander as affection. But I felt the malicious way his hands squeezed mine like a vice, caging me from escape. Just like I felt the hollow perversion when he sucked my fingers, trailing his tongue over them with empty eroticism aimed to unnerve me. After all that was his only goal._

" _The beauty of the hand never fails to arouse me. Vampires would never go for such a place to extract blood because it holds so very little and is so full of_ **bone** _. It would make no sense to anyone else. But it serves our purpose perfectly," he smiled. "For one thing it's so frail and rank with nerves," he stroked the surface of my hand. "For another it hurts like_ hell _when pierced."_

 _His incisors seized upon my hand with the speed of a shark and the force of a bear-trap. I screamed with primitive animalia. I cried out with the desperation of a prey. I would be scarred until the end of time._

' _ **Lord, make me so mighty in my hardness against bitterness that tenderness of heart is not destroyed by wounds (Hosea 11:8; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8).'**_

 _Lord, save me!_

 _I was shaking and sobbing and whimpering even after his fangs disengaged around my hand. My vision was turning white and I knew he would never forgive me if I passed out on him, but if I looked at the remains of my mutilated limb I would never remove them from my memory. As horrible as it was, I focused on his devilish eyes looking up at me. Spiteful and virescent._

" _Did you like that? They say that the opening act always pales in comparison to the main event, but I know what you're wondering: how can this possibly get more exciting? More_ _ **stimulating?**_ _Worry not," his eyes were completely cold. "There's still so much left for us to explore~"_

 _His breath suddenly shadowed my collarbone and I could just imagine his fangs wrapped right around it. The precious white light of respite was being chased away by the deep, sobering black of anxiety._ _ **No, no, no, NO!**_

" _Wait...no…" He stopped. "No, how could I forget? My darling brother Kanato! He was so looking forward to playing with you..! Now I'm afraid we've made him jealous… Hmm… You see, he's not so like me; never again will he sit back and play quietly with his Teddy while the woman of his attentions is entertained by another man~"_

 _(The older boy recalled talking with Teddy in his room after singing for his mother, while the woman herself "_ _ **played**_ " _with his Uncle Richter scarcely 20 feet away._

 _ **Never again.)**_

 _Light footsteps cut a path in my mind's eye, the fact that they were audible spoke the true rage of the boy, as generally a vampire's steps were soundless. Closer, closer they came, until I could faintly see the piercing crimson eyes shine in the dark above me. Angry eyes matching the ones now glowing in place of the green ones._

" _I don't mind," the childlike voice said. "After all,_ _ **you did say you would join me**_ _."_

The recovery from that escapade took considerably longer: 2 weeks later and countless bottles of Cranberry Juice. And now Yui has angry holes in her ears that will only close slowly and other holes in her hand to complement the scars on the back where the keys ripped into her skin.

And she can't help but to think back every time she sees them from the corner of her eye.

At least the ones on the rest of her body will fade with time.

She opens the door. It's in shambles. Dents litter the wall like the work of an aggressive abstract artist in a fit of passionate rage and inspiration. All around furniture is upturned, shattered objects lie in fragments on the floor, on the wall a painting hangs, crooked. A coffin serves as centerpiece to the disorderly room, the only unperturbed spot of peace in the field of chaos.

 _Subaru's room._

The whole conversation with the sleeping violette girl was bizarre yet structured and somehow despite coming up with a plan of action the woman never said where to find the bolt cutters that were supposedly in Subaru's possession. Of course, Yui figured there would be some measure of searching involved, but staring around at the hazardous bedroom before her she only now takes into account how daunting the task she's been assigned really is.

 _Where to start…?_

The petite blonde takes a few delicate and tentative steps into the forest of destruction. _**Slam!**_

Yui jumps out of her skin as the coffin door nearly swings off its handle and the albino appears in front of her.

"What do you think you're doing here?!" His red eyes narrow down at her small height, his explosive voice bringing her back to earth.

"I- um-" the female stutters trying to think of something quick.

"You c-!" The teen with the white hair is cut off by a soft yawn interrupting the fury of his sentence. His red eyes soften as his face gently contorts. Yui freezes at the sight.

 _Kawaii~_

"Oh just shut up!" Yui startles wondering minorly if he had telepathic powers, but panicking as the boy grabs her by the wrist in a strong grip and drags her over to the opened coffin. "Any other time I might've let you go, but if you're gonna interrupt my sleep, then you have no choice!" He says strongly, more to himself than to her.

But seeing the small, claustrophobic casket and the strong hinges holding it together, the blonde lets out a whimper and digs her heels into the ground like a stubborn mule.

"No!" She cries out weakly, face flushing bright pink as she pulls back with all her might. _He's too strong!_

He doesn't look back at her as her feeble protests against his pull don't break his stride or strength for even a second.

They reach the foot of the case. He picks her up by her waist like she weighs a feather, lowering her down into the box. "You're gonna sit in here quietly and stop making so much noise!"

 _He pushed me roughly into the huge iron casing, but didn't close the door immediately. Instead he stood in the gap tantalizingly, closing off the exit yet leaving just enough space that I might have entertained a fast break. But his cold, green eyes froze me in my place, stopped the breath right in my throat._

" _A vampire like myself has no need to fear an Iron Maiden. We can sleep in cases much smaller than this, sometimes for millennia without ever taking a single breath of fresh air… Tch! Weak mortals like you are not so impressive. You probably couldn't go 5 days without food or water," I looked horrified at the red-haired male. "But we'll see."_

 _And then all the light disappeared from the world and the darkness closed in. I pounded at the door with both fists hammering as hard as I could, deep down I knew it was a futile effort, but my heart couldn't accept defeat so easily. My breaths came out faster and harder with every beat until I was hyperventilating and on the verge of tears. It was as if with every second the coffin drained the life and energy from me and if I stayed too long my fight, my will to live would run dry and my life would be forfeit._

" _Please, Ayato! I'm sorry! Let me out!"_

 _A deep chuckle stopped my erratic thudding against the door as I strained to hear the deep, malicious voice speaking to me:_

" _Yes, like that. Beg and plead until your throat bleeds in the hopes that I'll be merciful enough to forgive you. Yes;_ _ **beg until it pleases Ore-sama enough to let you out.**_ "

 _I didn't want to, but a certain point my life took priority over my pride._

 _So I begged...I pleaded...until my lips were cracked and bloody and painful. Until my thin legs felt like they had gotten thinner, so much thinner that they would snap like twigs under the complete exhaustion that I felt. That was if I would ever get out. I was a sad, broken doll trapped standing upright in a cold, solid box. If I ever got out my legs would break. My throat had grown so dry that my pleas could barely drag themselves out of the barren desert of my throat and meet the stale, thinning air in the constricting, metal death-trap I was imprisoned in. And my stomach...if my throat was a desert then my stomach was a pack of coyotes or wolves so starved and emaciated they had begun to turn on themselves for want of food._

" _P-p- ...lea...se... " I was too weak to even say the words anymore. Too weak to_ beg.

 _And if the physical torture wasn't enough, the mental more than made up for that. In one sentence: if I'd had enough room to successfully throw my head against the iron door and knock myself into a coma or even death, I might've. The loss of time-perception made me feel utterly hopeless and cut off from the world, as if I was in some form of purgatory for my sins._

 _But no; they were the demons. I would not sin. God would forever be with me:_

' _ **Lord, make me so mightily unmoved by the sting and deceits of injustice against me that I may feel and show the miracle of undeserved compassion (Luke 10:33; 15:20; Hebrews 10:34; 1 Peter 3:8).'**_

 _I spent my first hours on the fine edge between life and death, salvation and suffocation, before I steadied myself and got used to the very little air coming in._

 _But just when I acclimated, water came filtering through the gap in the door. Then I was drowning._

"No! No! NO!" Yui scratches like a wild cat at the face of the red-eyed Sakamaki as he holds her up like a sacrifice over the coffin. She squirms, she thrashes, she scratches with sharp and finely-manicured nails in his iron-tight grip.

"O-oi! What the hell are you doing-!" The albino vampire shouts out, overwhelmed. "Just get in!" He looks at her with a strange expression and then holds her with two unbearably strong yet lithe arms out over the coffin like she really is a small, feral animal that he doesn't know how to deal with. He begins lowering her down again.

But then the wild kitten turns into an unwieldy human baby and the little blonde teenager bursts into tears in his arms.

And Subaru nearly drops her.

"H-hey-!" He sets her in a rare show of delicacy on the ground next to the coffin. The blonde is put on her feet, but her legs tremble and the world turns watery and unrecognizable as she covers her crying face with dainty hands. "Listen you-! Why are you crying-?" And if the blonde would have looked up, she would have seen a strange sight of Subaru simultaneously flustered, fascinated, and befuddled.

But he gets no answers and the shorter creature continues to choke on sobs and cries, hands in front of her all the while. Her cries rising in pitch every time, shoulders shaking profusely, and face blushing uncontrollably like a peach.

"I- you- ... _fuck_!" He just wants to punch a damn _wall_ or something! Subaru grabs the pink-eyed human by the shoulders again and shouts: "Hey! Stop crying!"

That gets her attention. The woman uncovers her face and reveals two doe-like, rose-tinted eyes wide and innocent, inundated with tears, tracks painting silver streaks down flushed cheeks. For a moment the silver-haired vampire is speechless too, oddly not even stopping to think of how easily he could shake her again with his hands like a silly pink rattle. For a second he is spellbound...

But then he feels the tremors beneath his fingers latching like hooks into her soft body. He sees the splinters of fear stinging her eyes and keeping them wide and trapped in his. _Like deer in the headlights...like prey._

 _Tch._

"This is too troublesome. Do whatever the hell you want!" And he releases her, whipping his hands away like any longer and he might catch something infectious from her. Perhaps her weakness...yes, that's what he'll tell himself. He can't stand being around weaklings.

 _Idiot!_

With one last heated glare her way, the youngest Sakamaki storms out of the room as if she hadn't been the intruder in his _own bedroom._

Yui is left without words alone in the room. Sniffling, she wipes her teardrops on her sleeves at the realization: _he's gone._

She has his room to herself.

 _Time to get looking for that bolt-cutter!_

And she doesn't look at the coffin in the middle of the floor again.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap.

 _Ba-bump… Ba-bump… Ba-bump…_

Inhale, exhale~

Inhale~

"Hahh~!" The only female human in the Sakamaki house breathes out in a quick huff of air as she rushes up the stairs to the vampire sister's tower, heart racing her all the way up.

 _After this I'll be free! I can go home! I can get away from these people, finally!_

The blonde woman smiles throughout the exertion, the first real smile she's had since arriving at the mansion.

 _If I can escape, then the torture, the pain, the humiliation, everything will all have been worth it…_

She swings the tower door open with a light motion; no one is supposed to know about this, after all.

Striding over to the queen-draped bed, Yui begins to feel the ghost of anticipation and fear underneath her joy, causing her hands to shake as she ligns the cutters up against the lock on the coffin. _Breathe in, breathe out._

"Calm down, Yui," a sweet voice that she only knows too well at this point speaks out to her.

She jumps and almost drops the tool on the ground in fright. _It's not them, it's just Chouko-san and she's here to help you. She's gonna get you out of here, Yui. Just breathe.._

"Chouko-san," she breathes out in relief.

 _Inhale, exhale._

"Yui-chan, you have the bolt cutters I asked you to bring?"

"Yes," the girl holds them up in a show to demonstrate, but realizes that's silly as the other woman cannot see her. She clears her throat; "I'm just gonna break the lock open now."

 _What did I even say that for? Duh!_

Focusing, the seventeen-year-old pries the handles apart, fixing the metal widget around the lock, before trying to clamp the handles together. "Urgh!" The female grunts out.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes," the human lets out a huff of air feeling a bit of perspiration beginning to collect on her forehead. "Yes, it's just a little tough!" She squints at the durable heavy lock.

 _Not even a dent._

"As to be expected of a mortal," comes the smooth reply of the sleeping woman. "Do not worry, Yui, take all the time that you need."

 _Thanks._

The blonde gets it in position again, feeling like she's trying to put a dent into a mountain, but still optimistically bearing down on it with all her strength. When all of a sudden: chink, _**thud!**_

The lock, broken, hits the floor with a resounding bump. And the platinum blonde stares at it with wonder and suspicion.

 _What...but I wasn't anywhere close to breaking it…?_

 _How can that be?_

"I broke the lock!" Yui says with the slightest bit of hesitation.

How _did I break the lock?_

 _..._

 _But what does it matter anyway? I'm gonna be out of here soon!_

"Excellent job!" Chouko says exuberantly, probably the happiest tone that Yui has ever heard her use.

"Okay," Yui sits on the plush covers of the bed. Though staring at the woman is completely entrancing, it's also horrifying knowing that the woman is unconscious yet can still speak with her as normally as any other person. It's a bit unnerving, really, so she just gazes at the floral bed-spread instead. "So, now how do we wake you up?"

"I need some of your blood."

"What...!?" For a moment Yui cannot feel the sheets beneath her fingertips as she's caught in the dreaded grips of deja-vu. How many times has she tried to help the Sakamaki brothers, only to have them ask for her blood as repayment? The room seems to lose focus in her eyes and everything blurs away and falls into the deep recesses of her mind.

 _Is this what it's like when you realize you've been betrayed?_

"Calm down, Yui-" a voice tries to reach out to her and grasp at the dissolving remains of her trust.

But then, the hurt is wiped out and her eyes lose their complacency and give way to red. She jumps from the bed like she's been shocked. All she sees is red: "You didn't say this before!"

"Because I knew you'd freak out-"

"No!" She doesn't believe for a second. How can she believe anymore? "This is a trick, isn't it? You're just like your brothers, you'll do anything to get my blood-!" She's unamused, unenthused now.

But a sharp voice cuts her off.

"I am _not_ like my brothers. I need your blood because for some reason it has special properties that can wake me up."

 _Sounds like- God forgive my language- complete bullshit..!_

The blonde is furious. Does the vampire really believe she'll fall for that pathetic excuse?!

" _You_ have special properties, that's why only you can hear my voice, that's why you heard my crying in the first place."

"I don't believe you," God, is this the end for her escape hopes? "I'm not sure if I can even trust you at this point," she's through with the lies and the liars, done with the games and their players. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't go out that door and leave you alone in here again!"

"Well, it's either take the risk and trust me, or get killed by my brothers."

The room comes back into sharp focus and the red dies down. But she can't focus on anything except the words she has just heard.

' _Take the risk and trust me, or get killed by my brothers…'_

When the blonde finally comes to, she mutters in a toneless voice: "...What are you talking about?"

"I know they punished you for coming in here last time. And with those bolt cutters in your hands, and you being in here again despite how they warned you; I think they'll be furious. You disobeyed them. They'll kill you."

 _Betrayed and betrayed again. A double-blind._

All her fire and her determination destroyed so swiftly. So cruelly.

Her voice is only a whisper when she speaks:"That can't be-"

"It can, and it will. There's no way they didn't hear the lock hitting the floor. No way that they won't figure out that you entered this room. They'll be here any minute and you will die. Unless, you help me get out like you promised you would, and I get us both out of here."

"W-wait-"

 _Perhaps she was always planning this._

"Decide. Quickly."

 _Grrrhh!_ The blonde feels like she can just burst into tears and scream! _How could this happen to me? I'm just as trapped as I've always been, only this time I've let myself believe that I was free, that my warden cared about me!_ "Fine!"

"Good, now I need you to open my casket, quickly because we are running out of time."

"Okay," the blonde says, hands doing just that. The coffin's door swings open slowly, creaking faintly like it hasn't been opened in decades. The human thinks she doesn't imagine the aroma of vanilla and death exhaling into the air as if it was joyously ready to breathe life in again.

 _How cold she looks with her white skin in her white nightgown against a thousand white roses..._

 _How close she looks despite the fact that she comes from a different world and though her body is here her mind is a million miles away…_

 _How angelic she looks, when really…_

She won't finish that thought. She doesn't care who this woman really is if it gets her out of here. _Stop overthinking, Yui. Concentrate on the now._

"Then, you will need to locate the Intravenous Tube that feeds blood to my body," the purple-haired woman directs, snapping Yui out of her thoughts abruptly. "It should be a red tube inserted into the Intermediate Basilic Vein of my left arm."

"The what-?"

"It's on the inward side of my left arm towards the crook of my elbow. Have you found it?" The lady speaks impatiently.

 _That's right, we're running out of time._

Yui quickly grabs the woman's left arm, absently noticing how cold her skin is, and locates the aforementioned tube inserted into her arm.

"Okay, what do I do when I find it? Pull it out?"

"No! Not unless you want me to die a slow death, nevermind the fact that you would die with me anyway once the brothers found you," that shuts Yui's train of thought right down. "Follow the chord of the tube out through a hole in the glass lid and to the side of the casket. There should be another hole which it leads to. Do you follow?"

The blonde carefully listens to the instructions and sees what the comatose woman speaks of. "Yes."

"Reaching your hand under the the hole that the IV goes through, your palm should be against the underside face of the coffin where there should be a ridge. Pull the ridge out towards you, it should slide."

Feeling the rivet under the side of the deep black case, Yui pulls outward. A drawer opens filled with needles, nozzles, a blood bag, the red tube, and a small machine with a big button on the face with the word ' _Pump_ ' inscribed.

"You should be looking at a small machine, do you see it?"

"Yes."

"On one side of the machine is the IV tubing that leads to me. On the other side the tubing leads to a bag of blood. Take that tube and detach it from the bag."

Yui grabs the half-filled pint of red liquid in one hand, shivering grossly at the disturbing feel of it in her palm, and grasps it hard to separate it from the IV. She pulls, but drops the bag with a sick _plop!_ when the IV disengages and the pint spurts thick blood on her face from her tight grasp.

 _Eww!_

She feels the liquid that the brothers so enjoy creep across her face slowly and resists the urge to claw her skin off. She shivers harder now.

"Something wrong, Yui?"

"Nothing, I just got blood on me."

"Nevermind that!" The tone of the woman's voice is irritated as she shakes off the blonde's concerns as if she's a petty child with superficial worries. "The brothers will be here any minute."

And even though the woman spoke as if the whole thing was very urgent, indeed, Yui can't help but remember all the times the brothers have caught her unaware. They have teleportation powers and inhuman, supernatural speed. If they knew she was up here, wouldn't they be here already? But as Yui thinks this, she holds herself back from saying anything because she knows no matter if it's true or not, eventually they would catch up with her and her only hope of surviving that encounter rests peacefully before her eyes.

The detached IV drips from her fingers.

"Now, take the tube and attach a nozzle onto it, followed by a needle into the nozzle. It does not matter which you choose."

 _Okay. Nozzle onto tube. Needle into nozzle._

"Then find a vein on the inside of your arm and insert the needle. After you've done so, press 'Pump'."

But the blonde human is still hung-up on the whole needle ordeal. She glances between the long, thin, silver needle and the network of veins running in blue rivers across her pinkish skin. She hesitates and her breath becomes bated for a reason unknown to her.

 _After being bitten so many times, giving my blood to the brothers, after all this time how can a needle still fill me with anxiety?_

 _Just breathe in and breathe out._

After another long breath the blonde steels herself and allows the needle to break the surface of her skin and dive into the red streams in her veins. **Pump.**

"Okay, I've done it," she looks with interest as her blood runs down the tube and mixes with the other blood before disappearing into the little machine.

At first she doesn't feel much, but soon the familiar sensation that she gets when the brothers suck her blood appears, albeit much softer. And when the feeling mellows out into a steady pull, her mind wanders…

 _I wonder how Father is? Does he miss me? Did he really give me away? Will he tell_ them _if I return?_

 _Can I even go back to him?_

 _And if I can't… then am I not alone in the world…?_

She doesn't notice how draining it begins to feel.

 _Alone, apart from everyone except… this girl…_

 _Would she even let me stay with her? Would I_ want _to stay with her after all I know about her and all she's said to me?_

She doesn't notice how numb and tingly the nerves in her arm start to feel, nor how the thrumming of her heart ricochets all the way down into her arm. Pulsing, beating, driving.

 _Would freedom really taste as sweet if I had no one in the world?_

 _Who's to say the brothers won't go looking for me? Who's to say they wouldn't find me and drag me back angrier than ever? ...Or kill me?_

 _Am I really better off leaving? What if it's all just one big mistake?_

 _..._

 _No! How can I talk myself out of something before I've even tried it? Let what may be my only chance escape from me? Then they win, then they'll have truly broken me._

 _I won't let fear rule me anymore._

But by the time she does notice, her breathing is heavy, labored, and deep. Her head feels too heavy for her neck like a bulbous flower on a thin stem. Her skin has gotten to be as pale as the vampire before her, but as she clutches the sheets weakly and the life drains right out of her, it flows into the adjacent woman with a wave of revitalization. Thin, blonde lashes stubbornly hang but steadily sweep to a swift close, while purple ones open to their first sight in 20 or so years.

And as the blonde, human girl fades away on the bed underneath her, she feels velvety fingertips stroke her face and an equally silky, feminine voice whisper in her ear;

"Would you like to take up my place in this coffin, Miss Komori?"

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: So what do you guys think is happening with/is going to happen to Yui? To Chouko? The boys? What kinds of theories/predictions are going through your minds?**

 **Review if you please!**


	4. Chapter 4

****A/N: If you're getting this update, hopefully all the formatting is fixed. It was brought to my attention that this chapter that I had published previously had formatting errors...what I didn't expect was how BAD those errors really were! It was a complete mess and I'm actually mortified that I published something so unacceptable and illegible! My sincerest apologies to anyone who saw it AND TO THOSE BRAVE SOULS who struggled through that thing and forced themselves to decipher that mess; you guys are the real heroes. Seriously.****

 ** **Sorry again guys! Here is (hopefully) the completely improved version and I will NEVER copy my text over from Wattpad again!****

 ** **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ****

 **№➍| ❝Laid to Rest❞**

 _"Would you like to take up my place in this coffin, Miss Komori? Hmm?~"_

She had always imagined that the white light would come for her slowly. That God would cradle her in His arms as she went and she would slip away peacefully on the bed of her sheets.

Never did she imagine to be in the arms of a fanged demon, resting in her place inside a coffin away from all the world, and that the bright light would jar her from life, taking all her breath away in an instant.

The "light" was no guide into heaven, but a flash so quick it was like she had merely glimpsed Elysium for one precious second and then it was gone and she was thrown into blackness.

The human feels the breath of a shiver begin down her neck, a rolling coldness. _Can spirits really feel temperature? Perhaps only in hell where the flames burn eternally._

After all her devotion was she really bound for Hell? Perhaps He had decided that her time with the vampires had made her tainted, that she was sinful and irredeemable for trying to help them. Was this not condemnation?

 _I think I'm going to be sick…_

"Kidding, I am just kidding~" A voice echoes through her perception, a familiar chill ghosts her nerves again. But oddly, she now feels swathed in warmth. "I have placed you back in your own bed in the brides' room. You might be feeling a bit nauseated, it is because I teleported. Human minds have difficulty adjusting to such quick displacement, you would perceive it as something of a flash or a pop. The feeling will fade, do not worry. There is no need to open your eyes."

The little human's senses feel like they've been detached from her body like simple limbs and her mind flounders and flails for purchase and understanding. _Where am I? Who is this? Where did the lady I spoke to, go?_ Many thoughts run in perpendicular and confusing intersections within her mind-scape, but strangely enough she feels so relaxed. So uninhibited. The voice in her ear croons in a maternal tone...so soothing...so dreamy. And she's so awfully tired, what has she done to herself? She's just ready to rest with the angels up in the clouds of Nirvana and dreams…

"Mmmmm...ngh...nn~" the bride mutters and hums. _Sing for me, angel!_

"There is one thing I must do before we go, Yui-chan. I hope you don't mind. You are not really in traveling condition, anyway. You have lost some pints of blood and it will take some time to recover them, you will feel weak for a while longer. The brothers are going to check the casing soon, I feel it. I must be there when they do. They will not suspect your involvement; what with you so completely passed out you have the perfect alibi. And I will also fix things to deflect suspicion. But do not worry, I will be back for you once everything is settled and done. For now, sleep…"

And with that final thought the angels lure her to the clouds with their beautiful songs, and as she rests on her fluffy bed even Chouko cannot predict when she will come down and back to the earth again.

"Sleep~"

And shortly after the blonde's eyes shut, so do another pair. One body in the bed of countless dead brides, another in a casket made for the dead and undead alike. One who just woke from a long slumber, another bound for a deep, recuperative one.

Now is the time for rest; the sleepless nights are coming, and there will not be any tranquility like this for some time again.

Now is the time for calm, only the storm will come later.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

Of all the brothers in the mansion only one comes to see her in the night; the who cares least. Truly, he was the only one who had nothing to do with the incident that occurred over two decades ago.

Still, after everything, after what happened, still, even, after how he swore he would no longer get involved with the troubles of and among his siblings, still he feels that same, nostalgic, almost magnetic pull to her that he had experienced even when they were mere children. That lead him to wonder, then mesmerization, and finally back to amused intrigue; _who are you, really? What have you done to us? What will you do? Where are you? Have you changed? When will you be back? Will you ever?_

He swore to himself that he wouldn't get involved but here he is, alone, standing before her and staring like he used to do when she thought he wasn't looking. Staring and wondering. Reiji always thought he understood her best. Truly he was wrong, though he knows Reiji would throw a fit if he wasn't superior to him in even something as petty a matter as that. No, he's better because he can sit back and _observe_. Observe the subject in its natural form when it thinks it's alone and _unobserved_.

No, Shu _knows_ Chouko. Better than the triplets, her full-blooded relations. Better than Subaru who had always watched her. Better than Reiji who obsessed over her. He knows because he's the least involved. He knows her the truest because his opinion is unbiased. He sees her for what she is.

He knows what would happen if she woke up, and a small part of him knows that they might deserve some bit of her wrath. But _damn_ , if that didn't sound like a headache of trouble!

So as he stares at her heavenly face and his eyes roam down her sinful body and all around to see if anything is amiss, he finds his hand on the face of the glass lid, muttering;

"Stay down, Chouko."

Then he lets Tchaikovsky take him away into another world, turning around to leave her tower.

And he doesn't see her lift one eyelid in a near-perfect imitation of himself, as she peeks at his retreating back. She smiles.

 _It's time._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

He's loved her since they were preteens. She's loved him even longer. She has always been the light in his life that chased away the darkness of his nightmares and made him feel happiest and loved. She would hold him in his fitful sleep and drive away the bad dreams like a guardian angel. He has loved and does still love her. But even still, he dreads seeing her in the dreamland. In dreams she torments him and makes him quake like the child he used to be at the mere thought of going to sleep. At the thought of seeing her face and the hatred in her eyes.

In life she was an angel who loved him. In death she was a Shade who loved to _torture_ him.

He had been told once that confronting your fears could only bring you peace. He doesn't remember who said that to him. It doesn't matter anyway, because that advice can't apply to him. The embodiment of his true fear was, to all the world, dead. He couldn't speak to her even if he wanted to, which meant that the only part of his fear that he could confront was her series of vengeful wraiths that she sent in her place to torment him.

Once, he had also been told that the best way of warding off apparitions of deceased people one used to know, was to gather an object that the dead one used to fear and keep it around as a sort of talisman. Chouko hated all things gruesome and cruel, so he figured that if he slept in an old Iron Maiden then she wouldn't dare to try and hurt him in his sleep.

But as he looks up at her bewitching form leaning over him in his iron coffin, he wonders if it's a useless effort. Perhaps he was meant to be punished for her death. His undead heart seizes painfully in his chest just at the sight of her, while his mind scrutinizes every inch of her image. White nightgown. Petals in her hair. Long, purple waves, marble-white skin, pink lips, deep, violet eyes. He pauses at that. _Kind_ violet eyes. Her lips quirk into a soft smile that mirrors the gentleness of her eyes. This isn't the face of his nightmares.

And yet, he's hesitant. She _likes_ to play games. Always in his nightmares.

"Chouko...?" He's nearly stunned for words. "Is this a dream?" _Or the beginning of another nightmare?_

"What do you think, onii-san?" Her voice is light and airy, not weighed down by grief and anger as he remembered. She looks like a peaceful angel, blinding and radiant with the rays of the sun beaming through the windows and coating her skin in a golden glow.

His heart beats again and he draws in breath. He gets out of the coffin slowly and moves to stand before her.

 _She looks...so..._

"I...haven't dreamt of you in so long," really dreamt. "...I missed you…" it's the most true thing to come from his lips in years. "Visiting isn't the same; you seem so close to me, but you feel so far away..." He could look at her comatose body and remember the good times they'd had together, but couldn't bear to see her in his nightmares picking up where she left off.

 _If this is another nightmare..._

"I'll never be far away from you~" But she sounds tranquil and unburdened. This must be his dreams recalling the time when she was most at ease.

How long has it been since he's seen her this way?

He reaches out to grab her hands, stroking the smooth backs with confliction.

 _This can't be a nightmare._

"Still, it's not enough. That damn tableware otaku, how dare he take you away from me...!" His fingers shake and his handsome face contorts in rage and the smallest glimmer of sadness.

 _I'll never forgive him!_

"Let's not talk about him~" she grabs his face in two absolutely delicate hands, threading her fingers through his hair in an effort to calm him.

 _I'll never forgive him..._

"You're right, he's nothing, certainly not worth talking about." He looks into her eyes with wonder and disbelief. "I can't believe you're here. What I said before, it's not exactly true: I dream of you often, but it's not the same," he reaches out to run his hand softly through her long hair, admiring the texture. _Not a nightmare._ "You're never as I remember you, as I remember you when you were by my side; happy. Instead you're always crying and angry, just like you were that night," a dark shadow of the past passes over his face. "Just like you were when he-"

"Shhhh~ it's done," the pads of her thumbs stroke his cheeks with rhythmic and soothing circles. "It's okay, that's over. I'm here, with you, right now~"

He smiles under her hands.

"Sounds exactly like something you'd say," his eyes take on a glow reminiscing in the sunnier past: "You look just the same, as well; beautiful as ever. _Happy_ as ever..."

"And why shouldn't I be? I'm here with you, aren't I?"

"That's true," but he frowns for a second. "Though you've never felt quite this real in my dreams before."

"Then let's savor these moments," she leans in to whisper tantalizingly against his lips.

He closes his eyes to meet her halfway.

"Ah-ah-ah", amusement apparent in her voice as she says suddenly, pressing a finger to his lips when he tried to lean in. "But first, let's put on this, shall we?" She tempts, brandishing a sleek, black blindfold from thin air.

 _We've never done that before..._

He looks at her mildly curious, inspecting the object: "What for?"

"I want you to feel me, not with your eyes but with your body. I want you to feel _every inch_ of what I am about to do to you." She whispers teasingly into his ears.

He smirks - _well if it's a dream_ \- and goes along with it, "well, in that case".

His vision goes dark and then void, he feels fingers carefully tie the strings behind his head.

A brush on his palms and she's leading him by his hands; "come with me~", she teases again. He's led to a thin table-like surface, which she promptly pushes him on, before she straddles him by the waist.

And she's right, because aside from the feel of her weight on his body and the hard surface underneath his back; it's like the universe has dropped off entirely and they're the only two people in the world.

 _She's so different, but wonderful._

"I like this feisty side of you," Ayato comments.

It's certainly a change from how these dreams normally go.

"I thought you might." She pushes his chest down as he tries to sit up, grinding her lower body with his to keep that down too. He groans as she kisses all along his neck, sensually running her hands down his arms that had threaded fingers through her hair. She takes his hands and links their fingers affectionately, saying: "I want your hands in a very special place, _right_ where I can see them," and she puts them down at his sides. In lightning fast speed, they are buckled by the shackles attached on adjacent sides of the table, strapped down so that they can't move.

"Shackles?" He chuckles. "A dominating move."

"I learned from the best," she calls out, knowing that he liked hearing her call him the best, as well as her acknowledgement of him being a dominant man. Now he has to see with his body.

"I'm so proud," he teases.

"Not yet, but you will be," She teases right back.

She leans down again, pushing her curvy chest against his so that he can feel her lushness, and kisses him aggressively. He groans into the kiss, it's nothing like the last one they shared so many years ago; back then it was gentle but passionate, with slow movements that were soft yet sensual and somehow irrevocably innocent. But these...these are raw. They are rough and aggressive and so, so fierce. So much so that they can almost be described as angry in their fervor. He likes both ways with her, but he has to admit...this side really turned him on.

This is fierce, this has teeth, this kiss is slightly bloody, but he likes it that way...especially as it was her. This is a side he never saw of her when she was conscious years ago, this is a completely new side that he has never seen her display at all before. And just the thought of him being able to draw this kind of response from her, whether in real life or the dreamworld, fills him with immense pleasure. Dream or not, he needs her. So he responds in kind.

Her grinding on him takes on a rhythm as she runs her fingers through his hair. The intensity of the kiss has by now gotten so high that for a second he imagines that he can actually feel her body heat, but he dismisses that immediately. Vampires don't have body heat... Yet still, only she can make him feel this way, like he's alive and not just existing. Like blood isn't the only thing that can get his undead heart pumping, like his life didn't depend on it...just her. He only needs her. He didn't have to be the best for her, he _wanted_ to be the best for her, but even without that, she made him _feel_ like the best, and he loved that about her. She gave his life, life. And kissing her now, even if just in his dreams, he feels more alive, more like he's living than he has in a long time.

She was the fire, the intensity, she made things real even in a dream, and he knows she can feel that intensity too when she takes her hand from his hair to grip the table behind him.

If any other girl had turned him on and then dared to tease him with their kisses for this long, he would've been very angry. But not her; he can kiss her forever. And being reunited with the lips that he only ever sees in his dreams, makes him feel like he does during a full moon; like he is flying.

And then suddenly he is falling.

The back of the table near his head drops out and her lips leave his with a biting drag of her sharp fangs across his mouth, cleaving a bloody gash as its trail.

"Ah! What the hell?" He winces, feeling the vicious, jagged slash going from bottom lip to his chin.

Suddenly his head is a lot closer to the floor than before, and his legs are still on the table where they were, yet now more up in the air. He's tilted downwards.

"Oh wow! We must be going hard to make the leg of the table fall out. Hold on, let me get it!"

And he feels the weight of her leave him, and then in her place just air.

He can hear her footsteps though as she walks around to where his head rests.

"Did it break?" He asks, as he's still tied up.

"Nope. Just collapsed." There are a few seconds of silence before she speaks again. "Oh, wait! Found something."

But before he can ask what she found, his mouth is stopped.

And he's drowning, water comes from everywhere at his face. Going up his nose, in his mouth, and everywhere in between. It's chasing the oxygen away wherever pockets can be found, and just when he's about to burst, it stops.

He is in such shock that for a moment he doesn't realize what happened or why he couldn't break from his bonds, before it all dawns on him. His bonds were made of silver, as were the rest of the shackles in the room, so that not only could brides not escape them, but vampires also. And if they are attached to a table, then there is no question where he is right now. The table didn't just collapse, she _made_ it collapse; this was a **waterboarding table**.

And then he starts shaking. This is the nightmare that haunted him most; that night in the lake. Cordelia, looking disdainfully at him, and his beloved Chouko standing beside her. And though she was crying that night, it was the face she made in his nightmares that stuck with him; a miniature version of Cordelia with purple hair and disdainful eyes to match. She stood there right next to Mother and watched, _watched_ because he was too pathetic to save, because he wasn't worth anything in her eyes.

And though his mind screams at him to show her that he isn't some scared little boy anymore, he shakes even harder thinking about the look on her face.

No. He reminds himself that she had loved him, had always loved him. She wouldn't let him drown. And it's that thought that steadies his when he speaks: "Chouko, what are you-?"

"Don't tell me you don't know. You can't figure it out? I thought you were supposed to be the best. Right, _Ore-sama_?"

He stiffens at her use of that name, something about the way she said it just wasn't right. "No, I can't figure it out. This isn't like you. Why would you do this?"

She wouldn't do this to him, she _loved_ him.

"Why does one do anything? Why do vampires drink blood? Why does day go to night? Or night into day? ... why did you kill Mother...?"

Silence reigns.

His undead heart starts with a squeeze, and constricts with the uncanny, unnatural feeling of fear, one he hasn't felt since childhood. The blood he has in his body freezes, and all he can feel is his heart seizing to the rhythm of his body's tremors, and the serrated stare of his sister slicing through him. It cuts him open like a knife and leaves his heart exposed to her disdainful gaze as she analyzes it clinically, and deems it unworthy. _Pathetic_.

"Cho-"

She slaps him and his head whips one way with force, then the other way as she gives the other cheek the same treatment. " _Don't you open_ your mouth to lie to me. Don't you dare lie to me! I want the truth, nothing else!"

He can handle her slaps. Truthfully he feels nothing, his guilt and fear far overshadowing shallow pain. He has to make her understand. "The truth?" He says.

" _Yes_."

"I did it to protect you."

Her heavy breathing stops, and her voice is small when she asks: "From what?"

And where her voice is small, his is strong, he has to be strong if he has any chance of convincing her; "from **her**."

He hears a growl from behind his head before she huffs loudly. "I can see I won't be getting a _real_ answer at the moment. No, you're much too distracted, you're probably still a little sleepy. I have just the thing."

And that horrible, pressing force is back on his lungs and weighing on his mind. Suddenly he's displaced into a watery abyss with an unrelenting stranglehold on his oxygen. Falling deeper, his blood boils at the back of his head putting great, heavy pressure on his brain and making it feel like it is about to explode. Everything will be okay as long as he gets a little air. He can do anything - even convince her - as long as he gets through this. He can make her love him again as long as he made it through. But it seems as if every consolatory thought takes up more oxygen. No, there is nothing outside of the watery prison.

And then it's gone.

"Are you awake?"

And her voice is angelic. But she is an avenging angel on an ungodly, destructive path. She will not be swayed. Still, she is _his_ angel, and she won't hurt him. She can, but she wouldn't, and that's why he loves her. And even if she did, it is all just a dream. Painful it may be, but he hasn't seen her in a long time, he almost can't recall the sound of her voice. And he needs that. He will bear this if it means being with her for the few hours he was asleep. Besides, so far this is far in the way the kindest she's been in his dreams to date.

"I love you, Chouko, I wouldn't hurt you." He has never said that to her, those three important words, before. He was too afraid and ashamed of such a human emotion, and by the time he came to terms with that, she was gone and he had no one. But saying it to her, even if only in a dream, he feels less guilty, like a weight has been lifted from him, like maybe she could understand why he did what he did. ' _I've always loved you, Chouko. I could never hurt you, unless it was for your own good and happiness.'_

She pauses for a second, as if surprised to hear it.  
" _Lies_! You _did_ hurt me! You killed her, and she _loved_ you!" The distressed young woman shrieks.

And he is smothered again by that undeniable force, and he can feel her anger through the wave after wave of pressure. And he's drowning...and shaking. For some reason, this feels more real than the last time, whereas his head had been gargled and fuzzy before, now his mind is in sharp awareness. With her scream and the water now crashing on him...he really does feel like he's drowning, and this wasn't a dream.

The water suddenly stops, and just as he gasps to replenish his lungs, the air is knocked from him as a heavy weight drops on his stomach.

 _Can it be?_

This is real. _This was real_. Somehow, some way, this is actually happening. She's awake and she's drowning him. **No, no, no.** He shakes even harder, she wouldn't torture him water, she wouldn't do that. She _loved_ him. She knew his fear of drowning. She wasn't that cruel. She isn't.

"How dare you talk of love? If you loved me, you would've known, that _nothing_ could hurt me more than you killing her! And for _what_?! All she ever did was love you! And you _killed_ her!

And you're gonna get what you deserve!"

He shakes and trembles in anticipation. But what he feels next isn't a watery grave, it is piercing and sharp. A knife.

He arches his body up, hands pulling at the restraints in surprise.

"You _filthy murderer_! You're not worthy of her love _or_ mine! I _hate_ you!"

But her words hurt more than the knife ever could.

"I hate you!" **Stab**. "I hate you!" **Stab**. "I hate you, _I hate you, I hate you_!" And she punctuates each line with a heavy stab into his exposed abdomen.

And as painful as it is, it's only superficial; a vampire cannot die from petty stab wounds. He'll let her get her anger out, even if that means getting stabbed a hundred times, if she will forgive him. If she'll _consider_ forgiving him. He can't lose her again, not after all he did to protect her. He can convince her as long as she lets him, but he can't do it if she won't, that is certain. It's not as if she'll kill him anyway. She would never do that.

She would take out her anger on him, stab him a couple of times, then stop, cry a lot, he'd heal, she'd hug him, and everything would be okay between them. They're better than petty fights, they would move past this, and with him, they would go back to being the power couple; better than ever.

No, he thinks; she might stab him a bunch of times, but she couldn't kill him. At that thought, he relaxes and resolves himself to just lie there and take it.

 _Though it certainly hurts like hell._

 _"I hate you~!"_ she stabs him one last time, her voice breaking out into sobs, and she begins crying loudly onto his bloodied chest; small hands gripping his opened shirt, and head nearly in the crook of his neck.

Her wailing is loud and distressing, and he doesn't like hearing it. It even causes her to shake harder than him. And he remembers what a kind soul she was, that even though it had been many years since he'd last spoken to her, technically it was about only week ago in her mind. She's just like a small, innocent, troubled child. A small, innocent, troubled child who had just lost her mother, at the hands of her _brothers_ , no less.

And so he feels sad for her. He wants to console her, take her within his arms and embrace all her sorrows until they are gone. Unfortunately his chest is bleeding and his arms are restrained. But he also feels a small sense of happiness and relief; anger and crying are some of the first few steps in getting over grief. He'll help her get through this, he just has to wait until she is all cried-out.

 _Though her sobs sounds like they might go all night_ , in their vigor.

 _"-b-bastard!_ Have you nothing to say for yourself?!"

"I'm sorry, Chouko. Agh-!" He winces from the pain that erupts on his abdomen at every word. "I didn't want you to hurt like this. I did what I did for you, and our family. And soon enough, you'll realize that, and later down the road," he pauses, wondering how he can word this, "you might even end up thanking me," he adds as an afterthought.

"Why would I thank you...?"

"Despite what you believed, Cordelia wasn't a good mother. She abused me, Kanato, and Laito-"

"I don't believe you-!"

"And manipulated you into thinking it was okay. She had her claws _so deep_ into you. You were her prized chess piece; she used you to control us. She didn't care what she did to any of us, she never loved you."

He hears a big intake of breath, a huge gasp. He knows it won't be easy to process.

" _No_..."

"I know it's going to be hard to accept-"

" _You filthy liar!_ **DIE**!"

And just as he thinks she might stab him again, the weight bearing down on his abdomen disappears, and the blindfold is torn from his eyes.

He turns his head to see Subaru restraining Chouko, hissing and snarling at him like a rabid animal. "Let go of me! Let go!"

She's kicking and screaming and positively hysterical.

All of the brothers are present; Laito; paler than should be possible for a vampire and looking at Chouko like he is seeing a ghost, Kanato; hands digging viciously into his Teddy and face practically hiding behind the bear, Reiji: standing near the raging girl with eyes avidly roaming over her like he's re-memorizing his favorite book, and Shu: lazily unshackling his arms. It is a strange occurrence to see them all together in the same room by their own free will, but it doesn't surprise him. She could always garner attention.

And even though there is so much to analyze and look at, all Ayato can see is her. Her beautiful, hissing face and the silver blade in her hands.

He sits up.

"One pilfered carving knife," Reiji picks a serrated and bloody kitchen blade from the floor. "A vial of concentrated relaxants from my _personal stores_ ," he looks pointedly at Chouko who won't meet his gaze. "And," he grabs the silver knife from her vice-grip, "I believe this is yours," and he hands it to Subaru who accepts it in one hand, using his other to serve as a restraint to Chouko by wrapping his hand around both of her wrists.

He's that strong.

It seems to irritate her.

"Urgh!" she grunts in frustration, "get your _filthy hands off of me_ **, you freak**!"

Subaru tenses and releases her out of shock.

She runs up to Ayato who is just sitting up, "I'll kill you!" she screams as her hands poise to choke him, when Shu snatches her in motion.

"Ay. Shut up. You're so noisy." And he yawns loudly in her ear.

" _Ew!_ Do not yawn in my ear you perverted weirdo! Let me go!"

But Shu just ignores her and looks over his shoulder at his little brother.

"I'm gonna take her away," he says, before walking off with her through the door. Reiji just grits his teeth and gives a curt nod, not that his brother was asking for permission, anyway.

"She wasn't the manipulator, _you were_! You always hated her and tricked our brothers into killing her with you! Liar! I'll hate you forever! I-I'll kill you, I swear it! If it's the last thing I do!" Chouko screams from her position strung over Shu's shoulder.

"Geez woman," Shu complains at the abuse on his ears.

And then Reiji swoops in and injects the remaining contents of the vial she had used on Ayato, into her bloodstream. "I'll kill you, I'll-!" Is all she can get out before the drug kicked in and knocks her out.

"Much better." Shu nods at Reiji before carrying her out into the hallway and passed Yui who is waiting, horrified and surprisingly up, outside the door - the last vision Chouko sees - and out of the room with two of three triplets with pain on their faces, one brother jealous even of the fact that his older brother carried the female out, one tsundere left looking ashamedly at the hands that the woman had called "filthy", and the final triplet who can only ponder the silver blade. The silver blade that rested in her hands, yet had had no blood on it. And that's when he realizes why...

She had been saving it for him.

 _She really meant to kill me with it._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: ATTENTION TO ALL OF MY DIABOLIK DOMINATRIX READERS: **

**I've decided to do something new, as a sort of promotion for the story. Basically it is a way to get more comments from the readers: anyone who comments on a chapter will receive a private message with a snippet or sneak peek of the next chapter. I thought it seemed like a cool way to get more comments without holding chapters hostage or doing anything crazy, so from now on this promotion is enacted!**

 **Comment on the story for your sneak peek~!**

 _..._

 _And once again; shout-out to everyone who read this chapter even when it was a horrible mess!_


	5. Chapter 5

№➄ **|❝The Tragedy of Love❞**

* * *

 **#12 - NUMBER TWELVE**

" **the Beginning and the End"**

 _Years ago…_

.

.

.

 _"I'm home!"_

 _The violette walked into the house with a gown wrapped in plastic on one arm, barely noticing that the air smelled faintly like blood. Must be one of the brides, she thought..._

 _"Where is everybody?" She muttered to herself before calling out: "Hello? Anybody home?"_

 _It wasn't strange for the mansion to seem so barren, still she expected to see at least one person around, maybe even Subaru who was always working in the gardens. But so far, no one…_

 _Honestly though, she couldn't blame anyone. Things weren't the same after Beatrix died, weren't the same after she and Ayato…_

 _No. That was in the past. There was no point even thinking of it again._

 _Closing the door, the female took her jacket off but flinched when she didn't feel the customary hands of one of the maids come to take it and hang it up. The jacket dropped to the floor._

 _Even the butler and maids were gone?_

 _Now that was just too strange._

 _A shifting motion caught her attention and her eyes were drawn to the form of one blond vampire resting lazily on one of the green couches. He played his role so well that she had thought he was a part of the furniture and hadn't even sensed his presence._

 _This was a strange sight to be sure. While he hadn't shown much emotion since his mother died, now it seemed he had completely let go of his work ethic and had fallen to leisure and listlessness. Beatrix would be ashamed. No faculty of life interested him now and he was content to spend his days falling off the edge of the world, listening to music. But that wasn't the strangest part of seeing him sleeping on the couch. Normally he would do such an activity in private, deep into the rooms of the mansion where no one could disturb him. But here he was, in the parlor, the most heavily-trafficked room in the house._

 _The eldest brother, Shuu Sakamaki._

 _And no mistake: he chose his relaxing rooms with profound thought, he would only ever sleep somewhere if it was peaceful and quiet or if his presence was summoned and he was obliged to be there._

 _So what could possibly make him choose here, of all places?_

 _"Shuu! There you are!" Chouko crossed the room to reach him. "Where is everybody? Have you seen my mother?... Or my brothers would do, I guess," she muttered with a certain level of lesser interest at the latter option, alerting anyone listening that her brothers would be less favorable associates._

 _But Shuu wasn't listening. Shuu was still sleeping. Sprawled out comfortably on the expensive and plush green couch he looked perfectly content to stay unresponsive._

 _"Shuu! Wake up!" She almost moved to touch him, but thinking better of it settled for speaking loudly._

 _He wouldn't like that, but it was sure to get his attention._

 _"Hmmm?" The blond wouldn't even open his eyes for her. She pursed her lips._

 _"Hello? My mother? Seen her recently?" The woman questioned again, vaguely irritated now._

 _"Don't know about the other two, but last I saw_ that woman _she was in the foyer, just beneath the staircase."_

 _Originally, she wasn't sure he would help her, but her loud voice must have disturbed him enough to want to get her away quickly. She smiled._

 _"Thanks," and Chouko began walking away. She paused when his voice cut her off again:_

 _"You might not wanna see her now, though. She's a bit...busy..." He spoke in a toneless, unenthused voice. He seemed to be implying something…_

 _Maybe she was with one of her lovers, again?_

 _..._

 _Then again, no mother is ever too busy for her daughter. Cordelia's faceless lovers couldn't hope to compare to Chouko, her own flesh and blood, her precious daughter. Mother would make time for her._

 _"Nonsense! I have her dress," the girl held up the sleek black gown in her hands. But her half-brother gave no sign of acknowledgement or recognition._

" _For the ball!" Chouko elaborated, but seeing the blank expression on his face decided to just cut the conversation short. It was getting a bit tedious, anyway. "She's been waiting for this for a while now and I know she's gonna wanna see it right away! See ya!"_

 _The daughter disappeared without a trace, just missing Shuu who finally opened his entrancing blue eyes, only to fix her vanishing form with a heavy, unreadable look._

 __ **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 __

 _"Mother? Mother?- Ayato, have you seen our- Oh my-!"_

 _Blood. Blood all over him. Staining the white of his unbuttoned shirt, painting his torso a deep rouge. She looked, alarmed, into his bright, green eyes for answers, but they only looked back at hers, mirroring her surprise._

 _What the hell-?_

 _He was always a messy drinker with his prey, but even this was too much for him. Besides, even when he_ was _messy it was only ever around his mouth and sometimes dripping down his chin...but this was on his shirt and there was no trace of it on his face. By the scent, by the stark, crimson color; this blood was_ fresh _._

" _What are you doing here, Chouko?" He asked and she looked back at him, frozen in place, trapped within the walls of the hallway, wondering at the tone of his voice, the blood on his shirt. She said nothing._

" _I thought you were supposed to be out today?"_

 _What was with the curious look on his face?_

" _I was," she replied, a tense_ something _in the air. She paused, suddenly feeling uncertain. "I was picking up the dresses for the ball. It would have taken longer but in the end I decided not to buy a new one; I'm just gonna wear an old one of mine…" Somehow the words came out of her mouth with stifling hesitance. What is this feeling? "But that's not important right now, what happened to you? Are you hurt?!" Still that familiar flash of concern hit her, despite everything._

 _His face remained blank, so oddly blank._

 _"No, I-"_

 _"Is everything alright? What happened?" She took some steps toward him, pressing her questions onto him._

 _"It's nothing," yet his expression so solid, giving nothing away. "Everything's fine-"_

 _She took even more steps closer, noting with alarm that he shied away as she advanced. It brought to mind one heavy thought:_

 _ **That's not like Ayato, at**_ **all.** __

 _"Fine?!" She was incredulous now. Why was he acting like this? What was he not saying? What the hell was going on?! "Look at all this blood on you-! Like somebody died!" She was outraged._

 _"It's not my blood."_

 _Chouko stopped._

 _"Then, whose is it?"_

 _He gave her a meaningful look._

 _..._

Oh… _One of the brides... A regretful, nostalgic feeling crept up from within her… That's why he wasn't saying anything, why he was acting so strangely towards her, why he shied from her presence; they had broken up, it was no longer her business what he did with other girls, even the sacrificial brides…_

 _She was his sister again and that meant there would be a certain amount of distance between them once more. A "need to know," sort of thing. If he wants to mess around with the brides who is she to tell him differently?_

 _"Actually," she made sure to keep her voice steady and unaffected when she next spoke. But the air was still uncomfortable and disquieting. It was no wonder, considering. "Nevermind. I'm just gonna go and see Mother-" She turned away._

 _"No!" his voice cut off her exit and startled the silence in the room. "She's not in."_

 _Chouko rounded back on her brother with a disbelieving glint in her pupils. "What are you talking about, Shuu just said he saw her here," her voice was harder now, their vulnerable moment had come to a decisive end, in more ways than one._

 _"Who knows what he saw, he's probably lying."_

 _"Why would he lie?" She was unconvinced. Now this was just bizarre. "That's not his style. Anyway, I'll find her on my own-" She now no longer wanted to be in his presence._

 _"No!" Ayato grabbed Chouko by the arm, abruptly. And she turned on him:_

 _"What the hell is your problem-?!" He pulled her into his chest to her secure her, ignoring her protests. They were not together anymore: he had no right to touch her so freely and no right to treat her this way. She was a lady! "You-! ...Wait a second," she paused and leaned down to sniff his chest. The scent lingering there. "This isn't the blood of any bride...you-" And Chouko looked at her brother for a long minute, really looked, eyes staring incredulously at him. And she gasped out in horror. "_ Mother _!"_

 _And then she was running, tearing through the halls, catching and following hot on the trail of blood streaking the floors._

 _"Mother!"_

 _The sound of a piano stopping struck Chouko and the trail led straight to it. She ripped the door from its hinges. But the second she laid eyes on the sight, her precious mother was already over the balcony and falling to her death. And just as she screamed out "Mother!" and made to jump over the ledge after her, she was pulled back by two strong arms and crushed into the owner's chest._

 _"_ _ **MOTHER**_ _!" She squirmed in the firm hold, turning to face her captor. "Laito! What-" She blinked, astonished. "What are you_ doing _?! We have to save her!"_

 _He looked steadily into her eyes that were ready burst from their sockets: "There's no saving her."_

 _"What- what have you done? What have you done?!" The purple girl screamed and thrashed in his hold, eyes brimming with tears unshed. "Let me_ _ **GO**_ _!"_

 _But her efforts were futile as he only stifled her face into his chest to block out the world. She screamed into his neck, her fight not dulling for a second, until she deemed to viciously bite him at the throat._

" _AGH-!" He cried in pain._

 _Laito let her go, just in time for her to see her mother's body go up in flames, her height on the balcony giving her the perfect view. And she collapsed against the railing in tears, slowly sliding down its length and crying out stubbornly into the night. Her brother did nothing, nothing but watch her._

 _"Murderers!" She cried to herself, softly. Trapped in anguish and denial. "How could you do this to her?"_

 _Suddenly all of the brothers were there with them, but as she looked around at them all through watery eyes it was Kanato's form that she fixated on. Kanato with his stuffed Teddy bear and lightly singed clothes._

 _"Cho-chan-" her "twin" reached out to comfort her._

 _"Murderers!" She cried to herself and then faced them with a shout: "I'll kill you all!"_

 _She jumped on the purple boy and with clawed fingers proceeded to try and gouge his eyes out. Her plan was thwarted as she was pulled back prematurely by Ayato._

" _Stop," his tone left no room for argument._

 _The eldest, blond vampire sat lazily down on the piano bench, stroking the keys but occasionally casting his eyes slowly around. The second brother looked on at her through his lenses and upon the whole situation with morbid interest and rapt attention; as if the whole thing was a humorous joke for his entertainment. Ayato fixed her with a sharp look that told her not to do anything stupid. Kanato kneeled on the floor still from where she knocked him over. And the youngest brother, Subaru, shifted uncomfortably by the doorway, half-privy to the scene, half looking like he wanted to bolt._

 _In this moment they all had something in common, however; they were all watching her with wary eyes._

 _But they weren't watching closely enough, it seemed, because when she threw herself over the railing they weren't fast enough to catch her._

 _And she hit the ground with a sickening squelch, a sharp crack!, her ankles breaking audibly but doing nothing to deter her. And she jumped into the ring of fire after her mother, hoping to pull her out. But soon it was Kanato pulling_ her _back from the flames. And even though the girl escaped scathed with only 3rd degree burns, her mother was turning into ash. So she clawed and she fought for her place in the flames, not caring that the skin was quickly melting away into nothing, that the fire would take all it could and she was only feeding it with her body._

" _No, no, NO!_ _ **LET ME GO!**_ **MOTHER** _!" She was deranged as she made another, a_ final _suicidal dash into the flames. This time it wasn't Kanato that pulled her back, it was Reiji, equipped with a sleek shot of a mysterious liquid which he quickly injected into her neck. And down she fell._

 _She was rolled out of reach of the burning mass._

 _The brothers stood around her, watching as her ankles straightened and her skin peeled. They looked at her singed hair and charred clothing, the flames nothing compared to the fiery hell dying as her eyes shut._ _ **They would not see those eyes again for many years.**_ __

 _The last thing she would remember seeing would be lying beside her mother as the flames repossessed her body back into the Underworld, except this time there would be no saving her._

 _Chouko's wounds would heal with time, especially being in such deep slumber, but the black scar amidst the garden of roses was an almost perfect representation of the girl's heart. The one difference being that the scorched earth would eventually heal over the years and roses would grow there again someday, but the black mark on Chouko's heart would only spread in her years of sleep, stretching and devouring until it tainted every rose in the garden._

 _She would never be the same again._

.

.

.

 _End._

 **#12 - NUMBER TWELVE**

* * *

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _In immortal life there is an eternity of days,they come and go so quickly you blink and it's like they were never there. Days are nothing in the life of a vampire. And yet in one day I lived my whole life and saw the end in the flames before my eyes. And yet in denial I called it false, life moves on but I've lived in that day for an eternity. And in some ways I'm still there. Broken echoes of it come back to me in the spaces between every moment and all around me I see their influence. I see that I am in hell and there is no justice here; only torment. And as long as they live that day renews just as it perishes. As long as they live._ Eternal _torment._

When Chouko awakens she's propped up against the same couch Shuu once slept on when he had tried to act oblivious to the assassination of her mother. She opens her eyes not tired in the slightest, but her every movement is slow and sluggish like she'd just been drugged.

 _But I was, wasn't I?_

She lifts her head and sees the perpetrator himself sitting on the adjacent couch across from her, legs crossed and arm propping his head up as it leans against the side of the couch. The entire pose is staged and meticulous so that it draws attention to his long legs, perfect posture, and hints at a composed and intelligent demeanor. Meticulous and staged just like the glasses resting on his face, glasses with clear lenses that do nothing to correct his already flawless, inhumane eyesight.

 _How very_ Reiji _._

 _Pretentious and self-important to hide insecurities, at its finest._

She looks away from is red-eyed stare; she knows he'll keep looking at her, no need to entertain his misplaced pride by giving him any more attention. To his left and diagonal to her sits Kanato, the only person in the house who could ever put up with Reiji. They both like "tea parties" and possess the same thoughts on brides having etiquette and manners. They also have particularly dangerous tempers when properly provoked. She doesn't miss how very far Kanato moved across the length of the couch in the efforts to be as distanced as possible from the second son and she _**certainly**_ doesn't miss the stuffed bear nestled in his thin arms and resting on his lap.

She tears her eyes away from that _disgraceful sight_ to suppress her rage and stumbles on the image of Laito, Ayato, and Yui sitting on the third couch, the terrified female in the middle. The blonde doesn't look up at her, only swings her legs nervously over the ground like a child. Laito still gives her that same shell-shocked look, which she sneers at, and Ayato parrots the blonde girl and adamantly avoids her gaze _like a fucking p*ssy-_

The sound of tapping on her right brings her eyes directly across from the three and toward the people sitting nearest to her. Next to each other - _of all the brothers they always had the most respect for one another-_ but in separate, individual chairs sits Shu in the most ridiculous position -with his two legs thrown over the side arm of the chair and his back against the other in a wannabe bridal-style fashion- and strong-arm Subaru, who sits the very closest to her - _a smart move-_ but she doesn't forget how he was the one to prevent her from her mission - _a dumb move._ So Chouko glares at him.

But as her eyes roam all around the parlor she takes distinct notice how she occupies one of the three-seater couches completely alone. Two empty places sit next to her instead because no one else will and it's a strange realization to make…

 _Punks! They're too scared to sit near me, they already know what I'm capable of._

So she paints a crooked, mocking smirk onto her face and sits at attention when the red-eyed representative of the house deems it time to speak:

But first he clears his throat. Adjusts his glasses. Looks all around to make sure their eyes are on him.

 _Typical._

She has to stop herself from rolling her eyes:

"As we all well know, Chouko suffered a collapse," the woman snorts loudly, "twenty-four years ago and has been, until this day, in a coma," the bespectacled man states the obvious and turns his attention towards her: "Now that you have awakened, we welcome you back to this house," he begins with a level, calm tone. "Which you are welcomed to stay in so long as you _behave_ and cease these primitive and disorderly _stunts._ Failure to adhere to this rule will result in punishment most _severe,"_ he takes a long look at the woman, who only awards him with a sarcastic smile.

 _Fuck you, Reiji._

He sighs as if knowing her thoughts to the letter and continues:

"In your absence, many things have changed, which you will discover even further for yourself the longer you stay. As you are already acquainted with the members of this house, the only person left to be introduced is the most recent sacrificial bride-" his gloved hand stretches out to gesture to the silent woman.

"We've already met," Chouko says flatly, looking into his eyes knowing that he hated when people wouldn't play along to his game of rules. His face freezes.

"Have you, now?" That seems to put a foreboding gleam into his eyes and draw the interest of all the other brothers. A telling smile threatens to break the solid front of her mask of peace.

 _They didn't know that? Whoops!_

"Yes, we have," the woman looks deeply into his crimson eyes so he can see the true emotions she felt in hers. "It seemed only logical as she is the only other female alive in this house, the others seemed to have _perished_."

Anger passes over Reiji's face like a shadow and bring his eyes to a hateful burn.

 _Oh, I'm sorry! You didn't want me to bring up Mummy? Too bad._

"But, who knows?" Chouko continues speaking dramatically. "Maybe she'll die too? It seems a woman can be killed for anything in this house. Anything at all!" The woman looks over at the shivering bride and leans in conspiratorially, putting on a look of false concern: "I'd watch out if I were you-"

"Enough!" Reiji snarls from his seat, posture fracturing under the heat of his glare. "Your childish games will not be tolerated or entertained in this house! You will either act accordingly to your position as a lady, or you may continue to be petulant and be _punished_ as a child."

His face is serious as stone, but one look at him and Chouko knows it's just a mould he had carved for himself to hide the little bitter boy she had known as a child. The little insecure boy who would have done anything to catch her eye. He has the body of a man now but his voice echoes the child he once was, and she knows immediately that this is only another one of his ploys to prove himself to her.

 _He doesn't mean any of his threats. I'm still impervious. I'm still in control._

Chouko smiles:

"You're right. I'm a grown woman; I should behave in a mature manner. Perhaps I'm being unreasonable," she pivots to her left to face the triplets, knowing all the while it burns Reiji to be dismissed so easily. "Maybe I shouldn't blame you guys so much. After all, killing Mother was just what Father wanted. You've played right into his agenda!" Her voice meets the air, unchallenged, none of them even daring to look her in the eyes. "She was a nuisance to him and with her dead you're one step closer to being the mindless, killing _pawns_ that Father always wanted you to be! Congratulations, he must be so proud!"

They are silent then, uncomfortable. Nobody really wants to say anything to that as it has some rings of truth in it. Ayato's eyes are brooding and stormy; every second or so he glances at her, but his gaze inevitably returns to the floor.

 _She was really going to kill me...she really wanted me dead…_

 _She really…_

Kanato's eyes are so wide they make him look like a doll; unreal, unnatural. Only his deep, purple dark-circles resting directly beneath and the way his fangs chew thin lips bloody and raw prove him otherwise.

 _Why is she doing this to me?! Doesn't she love me anymore?!_

 _Obviously she doesn't~_

Slender fingers wrap around the teddy bear's throat and squeeze. _Traitor._

Surprisingly, the little blonde human does look straight at the Sakamaki female. However her eyes are wide, horrified, and unseeing. Hope steadily drains from her body like blood dripping from an open wound.

There was no mistaking what Yui saw earlier that day; Chouko had tried to murder Ayato in cold blood.

 _She's crazy, she's actually crazy…!_

And Laito's eyes are covered mysteriously by his fedora, whatever emotion he is caught up in remains anonymous.

"Shut up."

Chouko's head whips abruptly to see the slackened face of Laito as he raises his head to face her; emotions running all through his eyes, body tensed and upset. A rare sight to behold; Laito looks _deeply upset._

Her eyes widen at his boldness, he was always the triplet that she paid the least attention to. Maybe she shouldn't have underestimated him.

 _No pretending now, Laito? Oh I see; 'don't kick a dog when he's already down', huh? As if._

 _But if it's him..._

"I'm sorry," Chouko now gives him every ounce of her focus. "You're right. How can I say that to _you of all people?_ I mean; you loved her even more than _I did!_ I rarely ever saw you; you spent so much time with her! Pray tell, what _were_ you two always doing?"

Because for all his **claims of love** and years of **devotion** , it was _Laito_ that sealed their mother's death. _He_ pushed her out the window. It was unforgivable.

" _Shut up_ ," he grinds his teeth, some unknown anger that she has never witnessed before taking hold of him.

"My bad, I didn't know that was such a sensitive subject. What with you killing her so easily-"

" _Shut up!_ " He jumps to his feet, hands clenching and trembling as if restraining himself from choking some invisible enemy. A stand-in for her, perhaps?

"Contain yourself, it's disgraceful!" She reproaches him from her seat on the couch, looking so eerily like Cordelia in that moment that everyone around stares, disturbed. "You didn't look so upset that night when you pushed her off the balcony!" Chouko scoffs and points a long finger at him: "Look at those _hands_!" They all watch as his hands shake. "Shall I give you a teddy bear so your _nervous, psychopathic_ _ticks_ can't be seen-!"

" **GRGH!"** an inhuman growl screams out in the room.

Suddenly a hand reaches out from her right - _Subaru-_ wraps around her stomach and throws her over the chair and across the room as Kanato starts crying, rocking himself in place, and Laito lunges. As she recovers and gets to her feet, Subaru protectively standing in front of her, she realizes that everyone is up now. Except for the quivering blonde girl, of course. She only looks on in terror veiled thinly only by masochistic curiosity.

 _Who could look away at a sight like this?_

Even if the more fragile parts of Yui want to. Chouko is quick to recover, getting on her feet and screaming in a fury of purple waves and white fangs across Subaru's shoulder:

"No! Don't hold him back, the f*cking animal that he is! Let him at me! Kill me like you killed her!"

"Let go of me," he hisses at Reiji and Ayato who keep him restrained, but even with the two of them they struggle under the man's rage. Kanato has since sat down again on the couch again, chewing his nails frantically.

"Yeah, let him go!" Chouko says behind the solid wall that is Subaru. Nothing can happen to her with him standing between them, still she wants to see Laito try. "Let him prove himself the remorseless killer he really is!"

The youngest triplet's handsome face contorts with a beastly snarl and with a growl he throws the boys off of him and stalks two heavy steps closer to her and Subaru, before stopping and pointing his finger at her:

"You know what? I'm going to forget this _mental breakdown_ of yours and forgive you. You know why? Because I'm not a _child_ , like you, not _naive_ like you've _always been_. Because **you don't know the first thing about Cordelia**!" Laito speaks, spitting venom and releasing anger with every syllable. Then he has to physically force himself to calm by taking a long, drawn breath in: "Chouko, I forgive you," he says through gritted teeth _and even I know that any more teasing and his forgiveness won't stop him from really going at me without relent._

 _I won't win that fight._ _I'll need the element of surprise when I make my move to kill him._

 _But I can't help myself, sometimes:_

"Doesn't matter if you forgive me," the sister looks over the albino vampire's shoulder and directly into the green eyes of her brother. "Because _I'll never forgive you,"_ she says and he stares into her eyes one second longer before deeming it a lost cause. Then he makes to leave: and with a flash and the grab of a fedora, he's gone.

There's one person who hasn't moved a hair in the entire duration of their reunion. While everyone stands flabbergasted at the events which just transpired, Shuu Sakamaki remains with his eyes closed just as he has the whole time. He knows his siblings, he knows Chouko. He didn't bat an eyelash because in the end he knew how this whole scene would play out. That, or he was just feeling lazy at the moment.

Either way, the only thing that surprises him after everything is all said and done is that no furniture was tipped, no tables flipped, and no walls dented.

Honestly, this was one of the more calmer fights of the house. Though to be fair he could easily sleep through all of them.

But as the room slowly clears and he is left alone on the chair, the others who leave are thinking very different thoughts. This fight might be foreshadowing of the future. Chouko has already attempted to kill Ayato, who was to say she wouldn't try another attack?

She's desperate. That makes her unpredictable.

She's vengeful. That makes her dangerous.

She's _Chouko._ That makes her damn-near untouchable.

Who can stop her, really? What would have happened if Ayato and Reiji hadn't been there to hold Laito back? If Subaru hadn't protected her?

The golden-haired eldest child closes his eyes with many thoughts on his mind, the chief of them all being that something must be done about Chouko and _soon_ …

Otherwise he might actually have to stop taking naps during the night and there is _no way in Hell_ that's happening. He'd sooner sleep with one eye open then let Chouko ruin his sleep schedule completely.

 _Yes, something's got to be done about her…_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

A/N: This story is going to have flashbacks as you have just seen, and they are going to be numbered so that at the end of this story if you so desired you could go back and read them in chronological order.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Just finished taking my SATs! So glad to be done, of course now I have tons of AP work to do and I have to take my PSATs again in school...but the good thing is I don't have to study anymore so I have more time to write and answer your replies! FFnet didn't remember all my formatting. :( I guess I should be thankful, it's nothing near as bad as Wattpad which doesn't keep any of it, but still scanning 4.5k words for formatting irregularities is just really :((( Updates could possibly be slower as school starts again, hopefully not but it is a possibility!**

 **Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

 ** **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ****

№➏ **|❝The Toys We Use❞**

* * *

"Yui, wait!"

The little blonde human slowly lets Ayato lead her back to his room, but stops in the middle of the hallway when she hears the voice of _that woman_ call out to her. Ayato pauses too. Yui turns to face Chouko, but offers her no words, just a blank face that says _I don't trust you_ and _I don't want to talk to you_.

However, the vampire woman barely registers that factor: "Can I talk to you?" she asks with a calm face and a stable aura.

But nothing changes in Yui's face. "We have nothing to talk about," the girl looks steadily into the eyes of the vampire, an unyielding wall of emotion.

Chouko starts at this.

 _Nothing to talk about?_

Yes, she's forgotten again; " **you can't just break a toy and expect it to forgive you… At least not until after you've made it yours~"**

She had forgotten those _precious_ words that she had once been told. As Chouko looks into the uncompromising stance of the other female she realizes that she's made an error.

 _If Yui thinks I'm deranged and unstable, then she'll think that she can't trust me...that I might attack her… Then I'll have no one._

Once you show someone your madness there's no taking it back. That impression _stays._

 _If I can't un-convince her that I'm crazy, then I have to angle that feeling to my advantage. If she believes I'm crazy and dangerous, she'll never trust me… And we need her…_

 _We'll shift it, just slightly. Sew the feelings we want, weave them loosely around truth… the best lie._

 _Back off for now, she has to believe I'm not trying to manipulate her again._

"Fine," Chouko says, finally. "Then I'll just go." Chouko adopts a carefully constructed expression and turns to walk in the opposite direction. But just before they are out of her sight, she sees a great contrast in feeling between the two. While Yui looks guarded and unimpressionable, Ayato looks vulnerable and hurt. And it's strange to see, because even when they broke up he showed no signs of hurt feelings.

 _But I suppose being dumped and almost being killed are two different things, ne?_

Chouko smiles a smile that nobody sees. Things are going perfectly. She doesn't miss how Yui clings to Ayato when confronted with the choice between him and Chouko. _Rather the monster she knows than the one she doesn't._

And Ayato saw it all.

 _He'll think we're at odds, that he has her trust. And when I worm back into her heart he'll never see it coming. She'll be my inside woman. Miss Komori is turning out to be more important than I thought._

 _And her blood was_ _ **to die for.**_

 _(And now I don't even have to worry about breaking her trust and telling her that I was never planning on saving her from them. This really did work out perfectly.)_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

She sits on his lap. This wouldn't be their first time. She's not nervous...exactly, not like she used to be. But when she makes the mistake of looking into his green eyes and he sees her staring back, she knows both their minds are elsewhere.

"T'ch, get out!" He pushes her off of him and she falls roughly onto the floor, fumbling with her blouse. "I'm not in the mood for your blood," Ayato looks away from her with irritated eyes.

She might have felt hurt at another time, she might have even analyzed why she would feel that way at all and only end up feeling _worse_ , in a different situation. But as Yui picks her school blazer off the floor and begins buttoning up her shirt, she doesn't once stop to think about her feelings of Ayato, how him drinking any more of her already depleted blood would have been sure to knock her out or worse. She only thinks of the girl they both can't get out of their heads:

Chouko.

For different reasons, of course.

No, Yui leaves his room and feels almost nothing at all. Without Chouko, there's almost no point anymore; she'll never find another escape plan as good. In her heart she wants to kick herself for letting that opportunity go, Chouko _had_ wanted to speak with her. But Yui can't convince herself to take that leap of faith after seeing Chouko try to kill Ayato.

Yui had wanted to believe in her and her story; that she was about justice and not revenge, but her savior still lied to her and turned around to bare the knife of villainy. Could she forgive her for being heartbroken and angry? Of course. For wanting retribution for the people who had killed her mother? Absolutely.

But answering death with just more death only tainted her quest for justice and made her as evil as the people who had originally wronged her. On top of that, Chouko had used her and lied to her about it.

 _She really is their sister._

So now Yui can't trust anyone. Once again, she's back to being alone.

She closes the door to his room and begins to slowly make the journey back to her own room, feeling the adrenaline fade and the exhaustion of losing pints of blood at once catching right back up to her.

 _I really need to get some sleep now..._

On the other side of the door, Ayato stays in his position sitting on the edge of one of his chairs, staring at nothing, before he tilts his head back and his eyes look at the ceiling.

 _Chouko…_

He never lied about what he said: that what he did, he did for her.

And after all they've been through she still wouldn't believe him, or even try to see where he was coming from. When he closes his eyes he sees her face sneering at him, screaming in rage. She's on top of him with the knife in her hands and she doesn't miss, because her deadly eyes sear him with their deathly precision. She hates him.

What he did so honestly, all for her, she despises him for.

His undead heart aches in the cage of his chest; how could they have been so close and get so far away like this?

* * *

 **#9 - NUMBER NINE**

" **Rituals"**

 _Years ago..._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _A scream resonated off of the walls of the Sakamaki mansion._

 _"Looks like the 'power couple' is out hunting again," said Laito, muttering almost to himself into his glass._

 _Kanato clenched Teddy closer._

 _"Disgraceful," Reiji reproached from his second-preferred seat at the table. "They've even made_

her _miss dinner **(1)**."_

 _"I'm surprised_ you're _still here," Subaru nodded his snowy head at Laito, who only calmly looked at him from his seat;_

 _"Why so, Subaru-kun?"_

 _"Hmph! The pervert that you are, I'd have thought you'd want to watch them," Subaru looked at him with critical, red eyes._

Oh _. The youngest brother was referring to his_ voyeuristic proclivities _._

 _A strange look crossed the green eyes of Laito as he stared at Subaru._

 _"No," a wry smile double-crossed his gorgeous face. "That's not really my thing."_

 _No one sentence could simultaneously be closer and further from the truth._

 _And that was all that he said on the matter._

 _ **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**_

 _"Please, don't-!" A brunette with piercing blue-eyes-turned-watery dragged herself across the hard floors, slowly trailing blood with each move. She wasn't getting very far; she was down an arm, after all._

 _"You are a_ bride _. You_ belong _to us, we can do anything we want with you," a red-head replied swiftly with cruel precision. "Torture, punishment… disobey us and it's yours," he looked down on her pathetic form, eyes flashing red to match the liquid streaming out the gaps between her fingers as she clutched at the vicious claw-mark on her right shoulder._

 _"But I haven't done anything wrong!" She cried._

 _"Oh yes you have!" A shadow appeared on the floor and a woman with short purple hair stepped into the light. "You've been a very bad bride, indeed!" Chouko teased like it was all a game: "Hanging around Ayato all the time. Trying to make me jealous~!" Her purple eyes flashed a poisonous color at her last sentence._

 _"Jealous?" Ayato turned with concern to his lover. "There's no need." He looked at her lovingly, tenderly stroking her face in their little moment to reassure her, as if forgetting all about the world around them and the bleeding bride painting the floor. "Don't be jealous. She's just prey. Worthless. You're the one that I love."_

 _It might have been romantic, thought the horrified bride, had her life not been hanging in the balance._

 _"Still," Chouko retained, gazing at her lover: "I think it deserves punishment."_

 _"What do you have in mind? Your pick." He smiled at her, full of excitement, his fangs making him look manic and devastatingly, devilishly handsome._

 _She pouted. "Well I am a little bit hungry~" she said running a hand tantalizingly down the long, white column of her parched throat._

 _"Ah yes~" his eyes followed that trail longingly before snapping out of it and looking back up. "And she did make us miss dinner, after all!" He said with a sickening grin, turning back shortly to flash a sadistic smirk down at the human. He then looked to his lover softly: "How about I drink from her and you drink from me?" He proposed grasping her hand. "You won't have to worry about her filthy blood staining your lips and that way even if I have her, you'll still have me. All to yourself~" he whispered, playing it up._

 _"No," she said surprisingly. Eyes firm. "We share."_

 _Ayato looked at her strangely: "I thought you didn't like girls."_

 _"I don't really," she glanced down at their entwined hands before looking up at him again with a saccharine simper; "but two sets of fangs are sure to do more damage than one."_

They grinned at each other wolfishly and dived into the poor bride's veins.

 _And it_ did _hurt; she screamed all night._

 _And the mess they left was absolutely_ deplorable _!_

 _But the couple wasn't punished because together they always got their way, and the bride was forgiven because as a doll she would never make a mess again._

 _It all worked out.  
._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#9 - NUMBER NINE**

* * *

A long and drawn-out sigh fills the emptiness of the room.

 _What am I going to do about you, Chouko?_

And Ayato closes his eyes without a sound.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ** _  
_

Kanato is always lonely.

And he isn't particularly close to his triplet brothers. Ayato is loud and rude and calls him a "hysteric". Laito is more well-mannered but still profane like _Mother_ and he never had time for "children" like him (Laito only made time for "adult activities").

Ayato and Laito both have green eyes and red hair.

 _Kanato_ is the only triplet who has purple eyes and hair.

For those reasons just as well as others, Ayato and Laito were always closer to each other than any combination of Kanato, Ayato, and Laito. It was different when Kanato was thrown into the mix.

They _look_ different. Their _personalities_ are different. They really aren't like triplets at _all_.

But then there was Chouko.

With her patient attitude that never got tired of him. Her understanding nature that never ignored him. Her _smile_ that made him smile. Her purple eyes complete with purple hair. She was his other half.

They weren't twins, but they didn't care. She was his other half; they were each other's twin _soul_.

At least, _that was how things were always supposed to be, until that night when Mother fell out of the window._

 _But she must love me still. We're twins! We're supposed to always be together, forever!_

 _She_ must _love me._

Kanato is convinced as he follows her scent in the hallways. That debacle in the sitting room with Laito was to be expected. He _did_ push Mother out of the window, after all. Why shouldn't Chouko be angry at Laito? He's not her twin!

 _But you are~_

Kanato smiles: Teddy always knows what to say.

* * *

 **#2 - NUMBER TWO**  
" **Lovable"**

 _Many years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Kanato was much happier when he got to chase the bats around the Mansion and play with Chouko all day. He felt safe on the nights his twin would spend sleeping next to him and chasing the nightmares away. But too soon those days and nights were over._

 _Soon he spent all his time practicing songs for Mother. And Chouko spent her time with Ayato. Soon the nights were no longer reserved for him because it was "improper for young ladies to sleep next to their brothers". Only children did that._

 _And very soon came the anxiousness. The nervousness and dread that his voice that he sang raw would break during the performances for his mother that he had practiced a thousand times. Soon was the separation anxiety that came in his dreams and haunted his sleep; always replaying that same nightmare where Chouko was walking away from him and he was screaming at her back but he was invisible, inaudible, and he couldn't move. Soon he hated to sleep and dark circles drew deep rings around his eyes. Soon there were faceless, nameless voices in his head telling him that he would be abandoned if he said nothing. They taunted him, hated him, tormented him, but they were his friends because he had none. He didn't have Chouko._

 _Soon he was so paranoid and nervous and edgy all the time he felt like a ticking time bomb that nobody could hear. Soon he developed_ ticks _:_

 _Drag his fangs across his bottom lip and bite it repeatedly. Knaw it until it was bloody and terrible. Chapped. Stay quiet until he could hear only the voices speaking and then erupt into raucous fury so he couldn't hear them anymore; throw furniture around the room and smashing his tea sets. Binging on candy because he felt empty and sometimes the sugar took him to another world. Nothing else tasted as good._

 _But the worst was his hands. Clenching and unclenching. Ringing and cracking. Shaking, trembling. He cracked their joints and when he hated the sound he broke them. He bit his nails until they were bloody nubs and he couldn't stand to look at them anymore. And when they looked bad and they hurt, he began throwing things and tantrums until they hurt so much he couldn't stand the pain. ...And they'd heal again... Then they went back to clenching and cracking and shaking. He had too much time on his hands and nothing to do with them._

 _But one day, he wasn't invisible and Chouko noticed him. He should have been angry. He should have hurt her, punished his wicked twin for ever leaving him...but the damage had already taken its toll on him. By then, he was just pieces. He had been crying out silently for so long that he was only too relieved when she noticed._

 _She would always notice him. He was her twin; he would never let her go again.._

 _"Kana-chan," she looked at him, at his hands, clearly concerned and worried. But all he cared about was that she noticed and was only paying attention to him. Her soft fingertips stroked his hands gently and it stung, but he didn't notice. His twin was here. Everything was okay. He wasn't alone anymore because his twin was here. She would save him from the voices and the pain._

 _"Chou-chan," his eyes welled up with tears that stung more than the welts on his hands and they embraced. Held onto each other like if they parted the world would fall apart. "Chou-chan…"_ I missed you...don't ever leave me again! " _Chou-chan-!" His voice broke in that pathetic, weak sound that he hated and every time he heard it he would sing louder. Practice for hours until he was perfect and his songs were worthy enough for Mother to listen to._

 _She wouldn't bother to pay attention to a pathetic boy who couldn't even sing._

 _He had to be perfect, he had to be a bird. A Canary... His voice couldn't crack._

 _He looked at his hands behind her back and began picking at them._

 _No, he had to be perfect… he really should be practicing…_

 _A piece of skin peeled off and the blood rose like water in a geiser ready to burst._

 _ **You have to be perfect, Kanato-**_

" _Kana-chan! Stop!" He heard Cho-chan's voice in his ears and the one in his head went silent. He looked at her through the tears in his eyes and saw ones just like his staring back. His beautiful twin…_

" _Stop," she whispered and he barely noticed that their hug had broken, only that her hands enveloped his and he was warm. She held them so delicately he almost forgot how he hated to look at them and the evidence of his weakness on the days when it left scars on his skin._

 _He didn't really understand why she wanted him to stop. He was a vampire; they would just heal anyway. What did it matter if he chipped his hands if they were teacups that would always return good as new…_

Perfect…

" _Kana-chan," she snapped him out of his momentary trance. "I have a gift for you."_

 _A smile broke the gloomy shroud of his face like dawn breaking on a stormy horizon and he was instantly just another eight-year-old little boy receiving a toy. His breath stopped in his throat and she led him to her room._

" _Close your eyes~" And he was almost too excited because he really couldn't bear the thought of not looking prematurely. "Hold out your hands, Kana-chan," Chouko's soft voice called out._

 _He obeyed and they shook for an entirely different purpose now; teeming with excitement._

 _And in his tiny hands came something so soft and light. It had the feel of a cushion but softer, more contoured. And as his hands grasped it and he heard her tell him it was okay to "Open your eyes~", he found himself holding a plush teddy bear with a beautiful eye-patch and little pink vest. And his world stopped spinning... he took in a short breath._

 _Chouko looked at him expectantly._

 _It was perfection._

 _He barely heard the words that came next. That Chou wanted to give it to him because she knew of his loneliness and wanted him to have another friend to talk to and play with in her absence. To keep his hands busy so he wouldn't tear them up again. To be another thing that they shared that he could keep close to his heart. To sleep next to him when Chou couldn't. So he would never be lonely again._

 _So overwhelmed by complete and utter happiness, Kanato vaguely heard his twin say that the bear's name was "Teddy"._

 _It was fitting. It was perfect._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End_

 **#2 - NUMBER TWO **

* * *

Kanato finds her parting from Ayato and Yui in the hallway, quickly walking away from them with a strange expression on her face. Her gait is fierce, strides are long; this is a woman who doesn't want to be interrupted.

Firm, unyielding, _unreasonable_...

"Chou-chan..." He practically whispers with how breathlessly he calls out her name. _Chou-chan, I missed you... I missed my twin... I'm sorry for everything..._

 _Chou-chan… please love me again… please look at me the way you used to…_

She walks with such purposeful and determined strides that for a moment standing in her collision course, he thinks she won't see him. That he is a pedestrian on a dark night and she's a car that feels no pain breaking him into a thousand pieces to get him off her path. Maybe not even a pedestrian...a _ghost_...because she's just as likely to go right through him…

His undead heart shudders and palpitates in an uneven rhythm within his chest. It comes alive like a precarious, fragile little bird fluttering in his ribcage with nausea. So breakable and weak. Tears dot his eyelids.

 _What if I'm invisible again…? If she doesn't see me… Chou-chan..._

He closes his eyes because her pace doesn't let up for a second and he braces himself to the notion that she'll indeed walk straight through him, after all. **Click. Click.** Her steps match his pulse; they are painfully hard, every hit drives the nail further into the coffin.

 **Clack.**

A pause breaks. The clicking of her shoes stop. He opens his fearful, tearful eyes and wakes to the vision of her face right in front of his, her body standing scarcely three feet away. He wants to smile and cry joyously;

 _I'm not invisible…! She sees me!_

" **You** -!" She glares, her eyes full of hate as fiery as the burning roses that lit their mother's funeral pyre. She's nothing like what he expected.

 _Why is she angry…? My twin…_

Her vicious eyes probe every inch of him with utter disdain and hate, but soon they latch onto the precious object in his arms. And they freeze, and then they see _red._ "Give me that!" He sees a flash of her hissing face before she rips it out of his arms with sharp fingernails and a brutal swipe. She's too fast, she's too wily.

 _Why?...!_

"Cho-" His wide eyes zoom rapidly, confusedly between the female and the stuffed bear. He doesn't understand. He doesn't know where to look, what to do with his hands-

"You don't deserve this bear!" All of a sudden, even though her voice is low, it seems like she's yelling at him: "This bear belonged to _my mother_! And you don't deserve to hold it!"

And he can't stop any of it; he's useless to do anything about the horrible scene spiralling out of control and reach before his very eyes. He's just a small Teddy Bear in the palm of her hands, helpless to her whims he can only watch, motionless and silent, as she tears him and his heart apart. It's all coming apart at the seams.

 _This wasn't how this was supposed to be-_

"C-chou-" His words and his voice stutter pathetically and his hands start shaking. Tears eclipse the hope that had dwelled in his eyes before. _Weak and useless._

His only friend sits in her arms comfortably and says nothing as she takes him away. He doesn't yell for him, he doesn't cry, he says nothing like he can't even see it happening behind his button eyes. As if he's _invisible_ to him!

But not her, she sees him with complete clarity. She wants to destroy him...take away his only friend knowing that nothing could break him more than _her,_ his twin, taking away his only friend, Teddy, who says nothing at the development. He doesn't even _care_ about him anymore, _neither_ of them do…

 _Why is Teddy so silent?!_

"Don't you dare say anything to me, murderer! This is _not_ your bear-! You are _not_ her child-! _And I am not_ your twin, anymore!"

 **They** _ **shake**_ **...**

This feeling...it's worse than being invisible… it's like he's dead in his body, serving as his casket, and looking down at everything as a ghost. Forced to watch as they mutilate his corpse and tear out his heart and he can do nothing. He's just a lost soul haunting them with his presence, but he's so insignificant that they hardly even care or notice…

 **They** _ **quake**_ **...**

Chouko leaves him.

Teddy leaves him.

He doesn't notice, caught in the grips of a terrible nightmare.

 **His hands** _ **tremble**_ **.**

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _Disgusting!_

Chouko looks at the bear with narrowed, disdainful eyes. She barely **(A/N: bearly!)** sees it through the intense red that consumes her vision.

She wants to claw the skin of her hands off into confetti until it is so shredded that the red underneath is the only thing she can see. She can feel it crawl like a thousand invisible spiders across her body and leave a trail of raised hairs in its path; the feeling of being so utterly revolted by this little bear is overwhelming.

 _Wretched thing!_

She yanks open the steel hearth of her tower's fireplace, ready to throw _that filthy murderer's toy_ into the fire and let it devour it whole, but an inch from the flames her hand halts.

 _No, not the murderer's..._ Mother's.

Oh yes, she had forgotten for a moment there; this precious bear was -originally- given to _her_ by her beloved mother. She had picked it out especially for her, knowing that Chouko always wanted a bear, that she loved the color pink…

It was the only gift Mother had ever really given her.

 _I can't believe I ever gave it to that murderer!_

This stuffed toy was meant to be _treasured_. And loved. As if Kanato could ever understand love!

 _Beautiful, precious bear._

Chouko looks down at the large toy, and for one second her eyes blur with tears and she's 6 years old again: and the bear is completely new, no tiny sun-bleached patches, no extra add-on stitches, just a new teddy bear with a round belly, an eye patch, and a perfect pink vest.

But then that moment fades and she reminds herself that she's not six years old. That she's not as young as she used to be. That just as she's changed over these dateless years, so has this bear. With everything that happened to her, with the rips and new stitches in Teddy; neither of them were half as innocent and pure as they used to be. But unlike things with her, Teddy could be easily repaired:

 _He just needs a wash, that's all, and he'll be good and clean as new!_

Like nothing ever happened, Chouko smiles down fondly at the toy before moving to open the door to her tower suite.

 _Things will be okay._

But just as she thinks that the breath is pulled from her throat, something covers her mouth and she shouts, lashing out with her arms and legs. But they are blocked off too, she finds, as strong arms grab her limbs from every direction. Hands everywhere, grabbing, pulling, restraining, but she still doesn't stop her struggle. At this point she can barely keep her eyes open.

Teddy hits the ground so softly she can't even hear it. She can't hear _anything_...

 **Darkness prevails.**

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 ** _Author's FOOTNOTE:_** _  
_ _ **(1)**_ _I didn't notice this before, but this is a pun, because they made the bride_ miss _(_ _the) dinner_ _and instead made_ the bride _Ms. Dinner_

 **A/N: There are probably some formatting errors but at this point I can't bring myself to look at the words anymore. Oh well. I meant for the Kanato-Chouko scene to be a bit more dramatic but when I kept imagining Chouko yanking Teddy from Kanato's arms and hissing at him, it was just so funny and I couldn't stay serious. So if that humor bled through into the scene, sorry? This chapter we explore a side of Kanato that isn't seen in the games of anime. What do you think about his ticks?**

Review for your sneak peek of Chapter 7~!


	7. Chapter 7

****A/N: Sorry, totally forgot I had to update this story. I've been really busy in the past few days and I'm not completely on top of all my online commitments because of it. Note: If you like interpreting the chapter titles and have a hard time with this one, feel free to pm me. Edit: I swear the digital Gods are conspiring to sabotage me I literally re-formatted this THREE TIMES before it actually sticked and didn't reset or change itself to all bold print! Three times. fml!****

 ** **Enjoy!****

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **№➆** ** **|❝Shades of Gray❞****

* * *

Black is the color on the walls. It's perpetually dark here. Like a bottomless black hole it seems to swallow up all the colors in the universe, only leaving behind an empty, gaping nothingness... Some people would find it unnerving, like looking into deep space and seeing no stars, no pockets of light anywhere. It could be terrifying even; to be so blind to your own surroundings, so vulnerable, so naked. With its poignant vacancy it truly was like space; like being completely cut off from the world and all the natural senses of perception. That in itself was horrifying.

 _But a vampire sees best in the dark. For a vampire night is day and such a complete blackness is comforting._

Cold is the temperature. It's the kind of cold that strips the coat of your flesh right off, freezes your marrow, and makes your bones so solid they turn to stone. Immovable. Dead. The kind of cold that doesn't ever get warmer. With the solid cement walls and floors, the constant cold is just another intrinsic part of the room. The chill is hypothermic.

 _Breathe in the cold, breathe out death~_

She chuckles weakly and watches her little puff of breath uncurl in the air in a short gray cloud. Then it vanishes.

 _But a vampire is immune to temperature, impervious to coldness._ It can't hurt her.

 _It can't hurt me._

No, the darkness and the chill don't bother Chouko. She's too mature to be scared of the dark, too _sophisticated_ to be bothered by petty temperature. Those are _mortal_ insecurities. She's not weak.

But, sitting alone on the floor in the cold darkness, Chouko can admit to herself that the oppressive stillness, the _silence_ that was what was going to make her little tiff in the dungeons unbearable.

You see, the thing about dungeons is that they are constructed so that the filthiness, the coldness, the darkness will eventually harm the imprisoned on a psychological level. Ironically that's what Chouko is least concerned with.

She has spent decades trapped within a coma inside her mind, suffering in her own little personal Hell of stagnation. And this little cell in the dungeons under the Sakamaki mansion is only a slightly _roomier_ coffin. That and this time she actually is underground.

It's not claustrophobia that gets her, it's the powerlessness. _Powerless_ to stop the nightmares from invading her mind, _powerless_ to save herself, _powerless_ to save her mother…

Always so powerless…

So in a never-ending free fall once again, all Chouko can do is reminisce, sit and let her feelings fester until she boils over in frustration.

She laughs again. Her mouth opens slightly showing her fangs, and they chatter right before she closes them. _Weak_. She grits her teeth. At least, vampires are impervious to the cold when they _don't_ have a full stomach. As for Chouko, she had drunk her fill of Yui's blood only last night. Or day. Maybe two. She isn't quite sure how much time has passed. But anyway, when a vampire has hot, thick human blood powering and running through his veins he gets to experience a few human traits. Gets to be warmed by the blood and is therefore susceptible to temperature. _The essence of humanity is weakness…_ That's what the blonde mother would have said anyway.

It's ironic, the little trick they pulled. It's bittersweet. _It's completely f*cking hilarious!_

 _Why, they've put me in a box again…!_

And she chuckles some more, but it rings hollow. It's not very funny. Because her laugh echoes in the darkness, spins out and goes nowhere at all before it dies. It only shows how trapped she is. She hates the sound. Her shoulders begin to tremble.

She feels every bit like an animal as she bares her teeth in the darkness, sharp incisors straining, jaw locked, teeth gritted and grinding softly and she _restrains_ herself from screaming! Her throat itches like a demon, flames of Hell burning her stomach from the inside out and she wants to _breathe fire._ She wants to scream so loud Karlheinz himself can hear her fury! One deep breath rocks her chest cavity and she feels like she's going to lose her mind..-!

She can hear her own breathing, her own heart beating, and suddenly it's just like she's in a coma again, with only the maddening sounds of her own creation and the blackness of no escape and utter insanity surrounding her. Rhythmic, like a ticking clock that never stops- _why won't it stop!_

The world is violently cut into jagged flashes before her eyes. They scramble everywhere and she wants to just lash out and kick at the walls around her! Shake their foundations and tear them to the ground so that the mansion collapses on the brothers' heads and ends her torture with it. But it's futile, she knows. She's still trapped. That's the worst part. So she opens her mouth widely one more time in a silent scream, shoulders shaking as if she was a volatile prisoner straining against chains.

 _And I am, aren't I?_

But she can't scream. Then they'll know they've won. That she can't handle being locked up in the dungeons for a night or two. They'll think she's a little child, to show such weakness they would never take her seriously again! Her organs pull and clench as her stomach convulses under the force of stifled screams and swallowed sobs. Tears prickle at the corners of her eyelids as the frustration wells up within her completely-

A sharp _clang_ and a metallic _screech_ stop her in her tracks. And her tears evaporate like they never existed. Footsteps approach.

 **Tack. Tack. Tack.**

A ball of fire appears amidst the sea of darkness, a star in the cold space, and Laito's calm face shoots out of the deep carrying a torch. Under the fiery illumination, a path of steps appear beneath his feet, and when he stops in front of her cells the room is brought out of the darkness and into the light just a little. _Vampires don't need light._ It's a show, that he has all the resources and she has nothing. He has access to the outside world and she is trapped.

The rays lick the walls with a yellow, sour glow. Chouko turns her face away with a dismissive, disinterested glance:

"Well, well, well...So now you're here, huh?" And her voice is the perfect mix of apathy and the acidic undertone of venom. It falls in the air in a deadly, melodic tune: "You got all excited back there in the living room, acting like you were really going to do something, but in the end you wouldn't even get close to me," his green eyes watch her head flick in his direction. For a human the lighting is too dim to see her face, but even though he can see it, he chooses not to look at it, instead focusing on the outline of her knees bent and hunched in the very corner of the dirty cell.

"And here you are, now you wanna come get close 'cuz you _know_ you have these bars to protect you...!"

She appears from out of the shadows, her beautiful face right up against the bars, hands clenched around them. In the light he sees now that she's snarling at him.

He pauses, contemplating her words. "You're right," he says glancing around briefly, expressionlessly before resting his eyes completely on hers. He has no smiles left in him and what was the point of pretending, anyway? They left that behind in the living room. "I'm here now because I know I've got you completely stuck in place-"

Her face shifts with surprise only minutely veiling the utter disdain: " _You_ did this, did you-? _Wow_ ," she breathes out another huff. "You're so _fucking scared_ of justice, scared of the truth-"

"No, I didn't have this done to you, but I'm glad it happened," his handsome face is uncommonly level and relaxed. There's no joy. "It means that you have to listen to me."

Chouko lets out a laugh so choked by insincerity and spite that it's painful for him to listen to: "You're so twisted up! You think I'm listening to a word you say?! I've heard this _allllll_ before!" And she's more dramatic than ever. And he sees it for the act that it is: a facade to hide what she truly feels. He recognizes it, because it's the one he's worn for many years now... except he's better at it, a master. His mask almost never reveals his true face. "I'm not about to hear you spit out Ayato's words second-hand like the puppet he's made you into, _he can come here_ himsel-"

Like a hammer hitting him in the face, her words blindside him, and a crack appears in his careful mask:

"This isn't about Ayato, this is about you and me-"

"We have _nothing_!" Sardonicism coaxes a laugh from her throat once again: "Not anymore! I have no reason to listen to you after what you _did_! I meant what I said back there; I'll _never_ forgive you for killing her-"

 **Crack**. A little piece of his facade dents as he begins to feel impatience and irritation gripping him: " _This is what you don't understand,_ Chouko-"

"No, I do understand! He drew you in on the shackles of his own hatred and then _strung you up like a puppet_ to do his bidding. That's what you are! _You're Ayato's puppet._ You can say all the things he said; 'that _what you did, you did for me'_ , but I know the real truth! I saw it in your eyes back there in the living room."

 _Patience..._

"That's not how I wanted our reunion to go," _Calm down, Laito._ He doesn't even notice that one hand grips the bars. "I only acted like that because I was _frustrated_ and _angry_ -"

"Of course you were," she interrupts him: "that's just how he wants you. How else could he have convinced you into his plan? How else could he have turned _you_ , who loved our mother so much, into a monster of hate? He manipulated your feelings and turned them into ones that matched his own. He made you believe that your relationship was hollow and when he had you convinced that you were truly empty inside he filled you up with his hate, made you his _instrument_ of revenge," her face is serious and all-knowing as she speaks every word. This is her philosophy, her heart embodied: "You're not the person you were; he's remade you in his own image. Killing her only confirmed your emptiness; _you have no soul._ And now you're _nothing_ ; nothing but a puppet. _Useless_. Why would I listen to you?

Why should I give you a _second_ of my attention?"

* * *

 **#5 - NUMBER FIVE**

 **"Attention"**

 _Many years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _"Chou-chan! Look what I can do!" A little 9-year-old boy with purple hair ran up to a tall tree on the estate grounds, jumped 15 feet in the air, and landed on a branch, standing up with his arms out wide._

 _A little girl with chin-length and similar purple hair shifted the Teddy in her arms to clap her hands gleefully on the ground below, "That's wonderful, Kana-kun!"_

 _"Psh!," a green-eyed boy with short, flaming red hair scoffed, walking up to the trio, seemingly coming out of nowhere. His white, long-sleeved shirt was perfectly unwrinkled, suspender pants prim and properly straightened, unlike the other three kids whose clothes were ruffled by the spring air and activites. Ayato._

 _"Aren't you supposed to be studying?" Another boy with red hair, but chin-length and wavy, turned his head away from the girl next to him and eyed Ayato._

 _"Yeah, yeah," Ayato dismissed Laito with a careless nod. "Studying is for losers...and apparently so is jumping trees," he said arrogantly, looking right up at Kanato, whose face took on a scowl that closely resembled a pout._

 _"He's so stupid," Kanato teased, childishly ignoring Ayato to comment to his twin directly. Then he turned to the arrogant boy: "You're only saying that 'cause you can't do it yourself," Kanato challenged._

 _"What?" Ayato looked back at him with a derisive snort: "Jump a tree? I would be really stupid if I could only do that. That's nothing! Watch this." And Ayato, a showman through and through, ran up to the tree, mirroring Kanato's take-off, but instead did a flip into the air, and landed hanging upside down on the same branch that Kanato stood on, smirking while doing so, his face slightly flushed from effort. "See?"_

 _Kanato "tch'ed" and jumped down from the height, unimpressed, opting to stand next to Chouko instead. "Look, Chou-chan, yet another thing going to his head!" He pointed at Ayato's flushed face that was upside-down._

 _Ayato's self-assured smirk dropped._

 _"And he's turning red, too," Laito chuckled._

 _Ayato dropped down with a brooding face and barely contained anger. And while he hit the ground in a huff and walked over to his full-blooded siblings, he only had eyes for Laito: "Whatever. Who're you to talk anyway? You didn't even do it, and I bet you couldn't do it better, maybe not at all." He hissed at his triplet._

 _The other boy frowned and tucked a piece of his long hair behind his ear. He was the only one of any of his brothers to have long hair._

 _Everyone was looking at him now._

 _"It's stupid, anyway..." muttered Laito, looking down at the grass beneath his feet._

 _"I said that too," Ayato kept on pushing: "but I still did it. Why don't you?" Ayato was in his face now, clearly trying to prove something._

 _"Just let it go, Aya-kun." Chouko said, and that was the silencing voice. Don't push it further. Ayato glanced at her from the corner of his eye before he immediately backed off and stepped away._

 _"Fine," he blew it off, "I have studying to do, anyway." And Ayato looked at his sister one last time before walking away from the three siblings and disappearing off into the estate._

 _"Chou-chan, I'm gonna go too," Kanato turned to Chouko. "Mother needs me to sing for her," he explained before gently taking Teddy out of Chouko's protective arms and disappearing in a similar fashion._

 _And then there was only the quiet breeze, Chouko and Laito, and the silence suspended between them._

 _"You okay, Lai-nii?" Chouko turned to him._

 _"Fine," he gritted out, green eyes full of mystery as he looked down at the ground again._

 _"I'm serious," Chouko showed concern now. "You're not upset about he said, are you?" She said, taking a step closer to him._

 _"It's not what he said, it's_ him _...or maybe both, I don't know..." He was frowning and he kept pushing his hair back behind his ears._

 _"What's wrong?" Chouko turned her full attention on him and that seemed to unnerve him even more._

 _He was having a hard time putting his thoughts words. "It's just-...I don't climb trees or sing well or do anything really all that impressive."_

 _Chouko was puzzled: "You said it yourself; climbing trees is stupid, and singing isn't 'all that' either. And neither of those things really matter anyway-"_

 _"Yeah, but-" he didn't seem to hear her much: "it's just hard because...I just don't know where I fit in, I don't have any special talent to make people like me," and he looked off into the forest outside the walls of their home._

 _Somehow there was a disconnect between them._

 _"Don't say that," Chouko grabbed at his shoulder and turned him to face her. "There are plenty of people who like you,_ I _like you-"_

 _"Do you?" His face became very serious all of a sudden as if the answer to the question was very important. As if he didn't already know the answer._

 _"Of course!" Chouko said obviously: "You're my brother-"_

 _"And if I wasn't?" He was quick to interrupt and clarify. "Would you still?"_

 _"Laito," Chouko's baby-smooth face began to wrinkle with a frown. "I don't really understand where this is coming from-"_

 _" That's not an answer."_

 _The purple-haired girl sighed tiredly, all this questioning was confusing and tiring! "What is it you want to talk to me about?"_

 _"I don't want to talk," his green eyes became distant, firm, and guarded. "I want to know your answer."_

 _What? "And I want to know why that answer matters so much to y-"_

 _"You can't even answer a simple question!" Laito yelled all of a sudden, and all the trees and flowers around them stopped breathing and the wind paused in its path: "Or do you not want me to hear the answer?!"_

 _" **Yes!** Of course I would like you even if you weren't my brother!" She shouted as well, not even sure why the air was so tense and charged all of a sudden and how it came to be that way. None of it made any sense!_

 _He looked at her face for a long time where it seemed there was something more to that look, something deeper bothering him. And then he turned away._

 _"...I don't know if I believe you… You only answered me when I pressed you and that's not a real answer," he had turned away so that the part of him that was hidden was his face, so acutely tormented with confliction it would be a jarring sight on a ten-year-old. "I have so many questions, and...if you won't give me any answers, at least any_ real _ones, then I don't want to talk to you."_

 _The grass crunched without a sound, not daring to make a noise as if knowing how important these moments were. He took that first step in the opposing direction._

 _"Wait!" Chouko grabbed his arm importantly. "Laito-nii, please listen to me!"_

 _"You won't answer me anyway," he kept walking on, barely working hard to shrug off her grasp._

 _"If you won't talk to me, at least talk to Mommy!"_

 _"Why?" He looked back into her eyes now, unbelieving, like he had already conceded that she wasn't trustworthy and therefore couldn't be listened to in any capacity._

 _"Because I know she can give you answers. And despite whether you believe me or not, I'm concerned about you! Just please talk to her. Please." She looked into his eyes and begged him internally. She didn't know why this was so important to him, why he was acting so strangely, only that it felt really important to her that she didn't let him go in this state. Something didn't seem right._

 _For one more second, green eyes held purple ones._

 _" **Fine**."_

 _And he was gone._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#5 - NUMBER FIVE**

* * *

"Hmmm? I said: _why should I give you my attention?"_ Chouko gives him an annoyed look as she repeats her words. She never once stops to consider her impact on his heart: "We're not a family. And if you're not here to apologize then we have nothing to talk about," she spits the words from her lips like poison that she had been saving in her mouth to infect him with. And she wouldn't dare risk a drop not reaching him. "Get out."

And he feels like he's balancing on a very fine blade, teetering on the point of oblivion. One wrong little movement, not meticulously calculated, could send him falling over into the abyss. He knows he's in a precarious way. So while his face is serene, on the inside his eyes can clearly see that she is the abyss, and that her words will certainly end up sending him off the edge if he lets them: "No."

 _Precarious and tipping..._

She scoffs with malice and pure hatred and sticks her face as far as it can pass through the thin but strong bars of the cell, so that she's practically in his face when she snarls: _"I said: get out!"_

It doesn't shatter like he thought it would; like Cordelia's expert fingers chipping and levering and eroding and lifting his perfect mask right from him in a tantalizing and painful dance. Slowly and cruelly. No, it's a completely unanticipated scenario: one second it was there, and the next the pieces of its remains were blowing away into dust on the floor.

He grabs her head, her _face_ with his hands through the bars and brings it closer. And he watches that ugly snarl contort her beautiful face and he wants to rip it to _shreds_ : "You _brat_ , you think it's your choice! I'm _not_ like Ayato! You're going to listen to me!"

 _Why should I play nice? Why should I be fair to her? She was never fair to me! So why should she get to play these games and have her fun?!_

"No-!" Chouko begins wriggling in his grip the moment she feels his cold hands trying to hold her head in place. But as she thrashes wildly her struggles only make his hands slide down to slightly under her chin and the back of her head. Suddenly his cinched fingers begin to pull at her hair.

"You think because we-" he adjusts his grip. "Because **_I_** did all this for you that _everything's_ about you! That you get to pick what you want to believe or _not believe_ and be naive to the truth! You're so _selfish_ , Chouko!" He is angry now. He's full of a rage so old he's had decades of it stored up for a time like this. He told himself he would never be reduced to a child again, to be slave to his own emotions, provoked, and completely controlled by them. He told himself that his mask that he had spent years sculpting and crafting in just the right way as he'd wanted to be perceived, that that mask would never fail him. That he'd always be in control. That _she_ was behind the bars and _he_ would be in control for once.

But he had fooled himself. Because back in the living room he had tasted her darkness and let it consume him and his facade with it. They've long been past the point of no return.

 _You're so selfish, you're so selfish…!_

She's screaming at him now: " _Liar-!_ You did this for _yourself_! _You're_ the selfish one! **And I won't listen to your lies any more, _Ayato_ -!"**

 _"Shut up!"_

His hands are at her throat, the air in the room begins to be squeezed from her windpipe, and Chouko, with complete surprise, allows herself to look up. She's still thrashing but his hands have slipped. His hands that had tried to control her, force her to look into his eyes and see truth had slipped from cupping her jaw and now choke the air from her throat.

Astonished purple eyes are reunited with shining green ones once more. From her trembling vision she looks into his furious irises and sees for the first time the tears that are present, so apparent in them. And it's like she's never really seen him clearly before, until now. She notices how he bares his fangs in rage and his face shakes with the effort, under the _strength_ he's enforcing in order to strangle her. She looks into his eyes and sees that there is no depth behind his anger; he is honestly, remorselessly, passionately asphyxiating her.

She sputters.

 _How-?_

He doesn't seem to notice. Not at all.

 **"So selfish-! You're so selfish- _always_ so selfish-!"** Tears slip down his pale cheeks and so the world does from her eyes. They start closing and her violent scratches upon his hands begin to slow, and Chouko wonders where he mustered up all of this hatred from?

Even after the words they exchanged and what she did to Ayato, she didn't really believe in her heart that he meant to hurt her.

 _For how long has he despised me...to be able to strangle me so heartlessl-_

It rings very distantly in her mind, the question if he really hates her, but her eyes have shut, and the world is gone.

She falls from her body, the gravity tells her this, and she doesn't feel a thing. There's just darkness...and silence.

Everything is heavy. She tries to move, but it's like her body is not her own, for it responds very sluggishly. It's like her brain is underwater. But there is light just above the surface of her hazy, undulating vision. Garbled voices break through. But every time she tries to get back to those voices some unknown force seems to push her down.

 _Fight the current…! Don't let him be the end of you! Be strong!_

.

.

.

And there is air again.

When her vision adjusts, her cheek rests directly on the cold cement flooring of the cell, her eyes opening like old, wooden shutters. With blurry, wavering sight she looks up in the dim lighting to see Laito in a similar state on the ground, and Subaru once again standing between them. Somehow she gathers up the air and sighs with complete relief, rolling onto her back, closing her eyes.

 _Sweet Satan, thank Subaru!_

She doesn't see his face or the way his shoulders tense like a panther ready to rip his prey apart, but she hears the tone of his voice rumbling like thunder a breath from striking: "You would strangle your own sister?"

Nevermind that she had already stabbed, drowned, and attempted to kill one of her other brothers. Nevermind the fact that she hadn't given up the hopes and plans of assassinating the others.

Truly, Subaru is one of a kind.

Laito is visibly shaken on the ground, and though she cannot lift her heavy head to turn and see him, out of the very corner of her eye she picks his face out of the dark. He looks up at her at once, a look loaded with so many things: regret, awe, astonishment, guilt, traces of anger, concern, disbelief, sadness, so many things...

But none of it matters, for it lays choked up in his throat and smothered by her gaze. Never to be spoken.

And then he calmly gets to his feet and he is gone once again.

She chuckles, it's the closest it's been since she woke up to sounding like anything near real. But it's not the same laugh of many moons ago:

"Thank you, Subaru. You really are my White Knight," she says breathlessly, eyes squinting up at the cell ceiling.

They don't look at each other.

"I didn't do it for you," his voice is quiet, so gentle. "Not this, not the other thing. Not really. I only tried to stop you then because I knew _he'd_ put you here," like the dying light his voice dims and flickers. _"I'm so fucking sick of that man putting people in here!"_ Then his voice blows into a full flame, bursting with heat. **SMASH!**

She doesn't even look, she's had the sound of a crumbling wall engraved into her mind since she was 9 years old. Despite his temperate moods, he's the only one that never changes. So his mood swings have always had a sort of calming effect on her.

 _" What right does **he** have to lock people up?!"_

But then, instead of strong, his voice is as broken and brittle as the wall he shattered. It breaks, it crumbles. That makes her look up at him.

His fist rests seamlessly embedded into the wall, his face hidden by white locks of hair. But she can clearly see his face in her mind, she had seen it

before. She had seen this whole scene before, she really didn't even have to look. He wasn't really talking about her. Well...he was and he wasn't.

 _Why do I always remind him of his mother?_

She doesn't notice when he disappears, his presence still remains. She's sure she haunts him just as much as he haunts her.

 _Why do I always remind him of his mother?_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: Why do you think Chouko reminds Subaru of his mother? And for those of you who thought that Laito's reactions to Chouko in the last chapter were mild; is this more like what you were thinking would happen? Or were you imagining something** ** _worse_** **?**

 _Can't wait to update again on Saturday: next chapter is probably my second-favorite! Review for your sneak peek~!_


	8. Chapter 8

Please take this time to refresh your memory with the warnings. Thanks. Don't say I didn't warn you!

(I didn't check this chapter super hard for formatting so I hope it's acceptable, but if you see anything that looks amiss I would be grateful if you pointed it out)

Enjoy!

№➑ **|❝In the Dark❞**

* * *

"Chou-chan...?" the voice floats across the darkness, light in tone but heavy with weight it suspends in the air with uncertainty. When he breathes out the cold of the the room turns his breath into a visible icy gust. _Cold like Mother's heart._ Like the rain that had pierced through his skin like a thousand icy arrows. He shivers. He can see her form hunched against the side wall, back propped up and eyes staring blankly into the dark. Purple hair falling in waves around her face before flowing in a stream like water down her back. It's the longest he's seen it since he was 6 years old and she was 5. That was always the thing that made Chouko look considerably different from Cordelia: while Cordelia had purple strands so long and regal they hung inches from the ground, Chouko's hair was always short, framing her face and stopping at her chin. But now with her hair so long, she looks like Mother... _and she talks like her too._

He breathes in shortly.

 _Don't give up._

He clenches his fingers out in front of him by reflex - _Teddy isn't here-_ so his hands appear hollow in front of him. Shaking, so clearly to his eyes, without Teddy to anchor them. And suddenly, in the blank space, Kanato is a child again; sad, so sad, lost, and alone.

 _Teddy isn't here…_

When was he last so alone like this?

 _But Chou-chan is._

Kanato takes a few steps closer.

"I know you don't want to talk to me…" her eyes stare fixed at the wall across.

"I know you're upset with me…" his hands grip the bars, resolved to convey the sadness plaguing his heart.

"But I don't understand why…" _why am I even here? Is it all for nothing?_

"Just tell me why..."

There's a distinct sadness to his voice, without his friend to shield him from the pain of despair and reality, he is left bare and vulnerable, quaking like a child. His fingers tremble pitifully like thin and fragile tree branches in the wind and he can do nothing to alleviate the shaking.

 _Stop shaking...Stop shaking…! You're not a child!_

And yet some desperate corner of his soul wails for Teddy. _Yearns_ to sink his sharp nails into the plushness and feel a calm as the object gives way to his anger. Instead sharp nails sink into soft palms and draw blood. Then through the now opened wounds, the bitterness sinks into his veins.

 _If Teddy doesn't want to be with me, then he can be without me and know what it truly means to be alone._

How did he get so all alone?

" _Just tell me why_..." And as his hands become solid fists around the bars and the blood lines each crease of skin, sharp teeth grind against each other in a battle of attrition.

 _Calm down. She loves you, deep down she has to. She'll realize that she was wrong, she'll apologize, and everything will be forgiven. Everything will go back to the way it was._

But the smallest glimmer of hope twinkling in his eyes is extinguished by the silence that follows: "Chou-chan?"

The twin pair of eyes stares at the cell cell wall across almost without blinking at all. Like he wasn't even there.

Kanato breathes in and out sharply, but with his teeth clenched so tightly it whistles with a sting so close to a hissing sound:

"We don't have to fight," he has to physically force the words from his mouth. "We can be twins again…" a generous offer, considering what she did to him. "I'll get you out of here, _protect you_ from Ayato and Laito. _Just tell me why?!"_ And it's not at all what he says, it's _how_ he says it. Behind all of the simple words are the ones unsaid, the ones that hang around in the silence between them like ghosts summoned by their presence, ready to be revived by the sheer name.

Every word he has ever imagined himself saying to her in his dreams falls short. It's smothered soundly by her indifference, by the complete overwhelming sadness that she instilled in him. She was the one who had made him feel alive, who had given him hope and peace by way of Teddy and she took it so easily from him it was like he was never really his own person. That he was always an empty shell who had to be filled by her, only _complete_ with her. That without her he was always nothing. Invisible. Forgettable. She could give him happiness and make him real, and then take it all away in the next instant. He was her toy, always, an accessory that she played with when she felt in a gaming mood. And when she didn't he was easily cast aside. Such is the way with toys, because toys have no feelings.

He could unearth his heart to her and show her its deepest and most profound facets, but it wouldn't matter because he was just a silly toy she could manipulate. Toys don't have feelings. Toys aren't worth the time. In his dreams the three of them -Teddy, Chouko, and him- reunited as their own little family and lived together happily into eternity. His dreams fell off a cliff the moment he stepped into this room. They would never reconcile. She would never listen to him: his thoughts were irrelevant.

Why couldn't she just see things things the way he did and listen to him?! Then she would know for sure that he really did do everything for her, that he never meant to hurt her, wouldn't _dream_ of hurting her because she's the most important person to him in the world-! _How can she not see that?! Why does she do these things?! Why would she take Teddy from me!? Why-!?_

 _I'm unimportant to her…_

 _Because I'm unimportant to her._

And this thought is the one that punches through his abdomen and rips his heart from his chest: that after all this time she was his important person, but he was always unimportant to her.

 _Why else would she do the things she does?_

For a moment he cannot breathe, bus thoughts are so full of emotion that thinks she must have heard them or felt their effect. But when he glances over to her with an accusatory glare, he finds her staring at the wall just as she has been ever since he entered.

 _She was doing it on purpose…! She was doing it to-!_

"Why do you hate me?" hus vouce comes out full of shock and betrayal only amplified by the slight breathless tone of it. Steadily it sharpens like a cutting wind: " _Why_?!"

But the voice he hears in reply is not of her own making, but of someone else's entirely:

 _But she can't hate you, you're twins~_

Teddy's voice floats down to him from some impossible, ethereal realm.

And even though he's gone, Kanato listens to his words and ponders them with intensity. He'd never get away from them.

 _Maybe he's right:_

"...Or if you don't hate me...then why did you say those things- why did you take Teddy?...if you don't hate me, why do you ignore me when I talk to you?!"

 _She didn't ignore Ayato~_

 _That's because she loves him more,_ his traitorous mind says.

 _And she always has._ This voice sounds a lot like Mother.

* * *

 **#8 - NUMBER EIGHT**

" **Chouko-late"**

 _Some years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _The last time she gave him a gift it was Teddy and he had loved that gift ever since. He was 8 years old._

 _This gift though, 3 years later, deeply confused him._

 _"Lipstick?" He and Chouko both loved to dress up and after years of turning his mother's deceased lovers into dolls -a practice Chouko knew nothing about- he was exceptionally skilled with makeup. But the makeup he used was only for the purposes of embalming and enhancing the dead. So seeing this peculiar gift he couldn't understand his twin's thinking._

"Chocolate _lipstick," Chouko corrected him, her eyes were wide and glossy with youth, her face the picture of serenity. What was she thinking?_

 _"So I...eat it? Wear it?" He asked, the frown on his face deepening with each question. Eyes growing sharp: "...Why you would give this to me...?" The outer rims of his eyes blurred as moisture collected and his vision tunneled until the only thing he could see was her. She wouldn't... "You t-think that I am..." a queer? A sissy? A dumb child who plays dress up with makeup like a priss? And_ _ **like every other name that he didn't know could be hurtful until Ayato aimed them at him.**_ _So what if he was good with makeup? So what if he carried a Teddy bear and kept a collection of dolls? So what if he had a sweet tooth and didn't play up a macho, arrogant character all the time like Ayato?! So what if he wasn't like the stereotypical boy who wore his clothes haphazardly, spoke loudly, talked back, played pranks-!_

 _He gasped._

 _No._

 _This was a prank... A joke! A_ _trick_ _she was pulling on him, like the cruel ones Ayato always deployed. This was probably the work of Ayato as well-! Paranoia seizing him, Kanato looked around for Ayato hiding in the shadows somewhere: he always made sure to watch the effects of his pranks. But as time passed, then his gaze dragged confusedly back to Chouko, his twin, sitting criss-crossed on his bed directly in front of him. But if this was Ayato, why was Chouko the one delivering it?... No. No! He had seen them hanging around together lately, but he never thought something like this could happen! That she would betray him and try to hurt him like this!_

 _Maybe she loves him more~_

 _Suddenly that voice... And his confidant, his greatest friend then felt false in his arms. Repulsed him. That Teddy, who had been given to him_ _by Chouko_ _, would say something as treacherous as this! He would rip him and her apart!_

 _"I'm just teasing." His heart lurched in his chest at the thought that she was just playing some sick joke on him. He dug his nails into Teddy so tightly that the veins in his hands strained. His face remained frozen in time, he couldn't even move. "Just teasing," and she shook her head and smiled at him so easily that he desperately wanted to believe that she was genuine and sincere, that she wasn't trying to hurt him. "I don't want you to wear it, Kana-kun, I just wanted to try something. Relax, just close your eyes," and her voice was so soft and sweet, he so wanted to believe in her._

 _Somehow he shut his eyes, fearful and tense. He had decided that he didn't want to see what horrible thing she had in store for him, didn't want to watch the nightmare unfold. And as his eyes were shut, his brain completely blanked. Frozen in a world of fear, suddenly he felt very cold. Not anxious, but like he was caught in an inescapable trap and all he could do was close his eyes like a little kid and wait for his twin that he had trusted to hurt him. He was numb, he was nothing._

 _The seconds went by, stacked up like a precarious perch of dominoes set to fall. And then...there was no pain. Something smooth and silky gliding across...a warm sensation like electricity sending shivers down his body...all coming from his lips..._

 _His eyes fluttered open between feelings of dread and shock, and the image of his twin with her short purple hair to match his own, white skin so flawless he had never known it was so beautiful, and missing from her face: the one feature that made it so perfect, was the pair of amethyst eyes that would forever be engraved upon his soul... they were shut, long, black eyelashes in their place... she was closer than he remembered... and the pressure on his lips..._

 _When he jerked back in surprise, it was gone, and he realized that feeling was_ her _lips, painted a deep brown. And he couldn't even speak, there was no way to convey the words; with one kiss she had stolen all the air from the world._

 _He didn't mean to, but his throat felt so dry, his lips dry too. He licked them and the taste of chocolate that lingered there._

 _What?_

 _When he had closed his eyes and gave into the darkness he had felt vulnerable, exposed... to what? He hadn't known in that moment... humiliation at the hands of a prank? That's what he had thought, that's what had terrified him. But even though he felt vulnerable, somehow he had never felt closer to her...to his twin... it was a strange feeling._

 _"Don't worry Kana-kun; it's just a game," she was saying, but the fire running across his body and sent his heart hammering away, spoke differently. Some feeling was destroying him from the inside out and making him something new. "We can stop playing whenever you want to," and he heard the honesty in her voice, she meant it. She had never aimed to hurt him. What did she say? His throat felt so dry... oh. It was just a "game", they could stop if that's what he wanted._

 _Just a game, just a game..._

 _But why would he stop? He liked games..._

 _And then she was applying the lipstick to her tongue and he closed his eyes._

 _He had never truly experienced darkness before; vampires see best in the dark. But now he understood why humans found being in the dark so vulnerable, yet somehow it was also so inconceivably thrilling._

 _He didn't fully understand the rules, but he liked this game. He'd learn. Practice makes perfect._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#8 - NUMBER EIGHT**

* * *

 _That's right...she didn't ignore Ayato._ Kanato thinks about Teddy's and his Mother's words.

 _Teddy was right and so was Mother._

Teddy's gone.  
Mother's gone.

They've both betrayed him. When he needed them most, they turned their backs on him. They ignored him.

 _Just like Chouko's doing right now_ , his mind says. What's the point of trying anymore if she'll never listen? If she doesn't care?

 _That's right. She's not your twin anymore; she doesn't love you~_

 _And she never has,_ Cordelia croons before she spits: _Pathetic._

"Shut up," he hisses under his breath. _They're not real._

 _Isn't it obvious?_ Chouko raises an eyebrow in contempt.

"Shut up," Kanato shakes his head.

 _Nobody loves you~_

 _And nobody ever has,_ Cordelia stands behind him, hands at his throat. She always controlled his voice.

 _And why should they? Why pretend? They'll all betray you in the end._ _Murderer._ Chou spits, she chokes him.

"Shut up!"

 _Because you're nothing~ Just a silly little child! Invisible._ This Chouko is young, full of insidious smiles and lies of innocence. She likes games. It's all a game to her.

The disembodied head of Teddy stuffs his brain full of hot confusion:

 _It's like you've never even existed~_

 _But then, nobody even noticed. Or_ cared _._ Cordelia sniffs at him, barely sparing him a sideways glare. Even in his mind her sole focus isn't on him.

"Shut up!" His voice breaks as the voices join in a circle around him, each adding new twists on their torments:

 _Invisible since the very beginning, that's why your only friend was a bear~  
_  
"Shut up!" His voice cracks under the desperation that pushes it to be stronger. Where did his strength go?

 _Pathetic little voice. Who can even hear you?_ Her voice shakes the walls of his mind: _When you sing for Mummy, you_ _ **SPEAK UP**_ _!  
_  
" **SHUT UP**! **I hate you! Worthless,** _ **ungrateful**_ **,** **selfish** **B*TCH! I SHOULD HAVE LET HER** **DESTROY** **YOU!** "

His voice booms throughout the cell and bounces off the wall with such clarity that it's faintly dizzying. Somewhere underneath all of that might, though, his voice faintly breaks… Mummy would be so ashamed. She stands there with Chouko in the darkness behind the bars, she won't look at him either. Teddy rests in her hands. The three of them are separated from him and united in that division. The bars lock them away from him in the dungeons of eternity. They'll forever be apart this way. And only he sees, only he cares still.

Why is his heart the weakest, most easily afflicted and broken?

 _So insignificant, you're not even worth killing,_ Chouko mumbles for the last word, her voice going out like a light being snuffed. And then he is truly alone again and the Chouko of his mind is the only Chouko in the world. But even so:

Teddy's gone.

Mother's gone.

Chouko's gone.

 _But really, is she? Or are you not the one gone?_ In his mind is a never-ending state of confusion. Who does he listen to: Mother, the pessimistic, sadistic voice of mockery, Chouko, the bitter voice of regret and torment, Teddy, the hopeful voice of his childhood happiness, or himself, the hollow core of sheer, ambiguous intuition that houses all of these personalities? Who to choose, who to trust…

Cordelia knew the minds of his enemies… Chouko knew the art of strategy… Teddy usually knew what was best for him...

... _But they've all betrayed me. Every last one of them, there's no point in pretending and saying anything different._

From the darkness Teddy's voice rises, resurrects itself and he realizes that it too is within him permanently:

 _Don't put words in my mouth, Kanato. She didn't betray you, you hurt her. She's not gone. She's right there in front of you~_

And he can't even bring himself to look at her form just behind the cell bars.

 _You lie. All of your words are meaningless. You betrayed me and so did she-_

 _And now she's paying the price, suffering in the dark, cold~_ Teddy, ever the voice of reason and mercy replies.

But he's wrong. He's a _liar._ Kanato sees Teddy for who he truly is.

 _If these bars didn't separate us I would warm her right up like I did with Mother-_

 _But does she really deserve-?_ Teddy interjects.

 _And since I can't, she can_ **rot** _._

And suddenly Teddy shrinks away from him, his too saccharine, child-like voice and optimism collapsing in on itself and burning from the heart of Kanato. Teddy was always the child in Kanato, the sweetest, sunniest, most innocent, redeemable side of him that made the rest of his sides not so bad. Teddy was his childhood: his happiest days. Teddy was the bright pockets and spots of light in his world: the field of stars in his universe. Without Teddy, Kanato was a joyless, depressive, destructive black hole with no rhyme, reason, or direction. Without Teddy...was such a thing even conceivable?

But then...Kanato came out from himself to deliver one final blow:

 _And you can rot with her,_ _ **Teddy.**_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

It's a week later that Chouko gets let out of the dungeons, but by then her mind is long off of that place. Now it's focused only on the question of her _previous_ incarceration, and there really was only one person who had any information about that. The one who put her in it:

"So, what woke me up, what was the trigger?" She says, making herself perfectly comfortable sprawled out on his coveted chaise lounge. She had just spent a week or so stuck in cement confinement. A girl's back _hurts!_

"And why would I tell you that?" His unimpressed baritone comes from behind her. He probably wished that she had chosen a chair facing him and his desk. Reiji could be really needy, sometimes.

"Because I want to know," she says simply.

"And since when have I cared about what you know?"

She wonders how long it will be before one of them moves so they can impress their presence on the other and confirm who fully has the other's attention. It's a game.

 _Silly little Reiji. I'll win. I always do._

"Since always," she replies at his hearth, eyes embedded in the flames. "You cared enough to let me know that you weren't an idiot. That your _brother_ was the idiot and you were smarter and better than him. You took _specific care_ to let me know to pay attention to you and not him. So," she pauses without a doubt; "since when did you care what I knew? Always. You did before, aaaaand judging by how you still wear the same pathetic glasses and stupid scowl, I doubt anything's changed with you." And she still won't even look at him.

"And you think I'd tell you anything after you've just insulted me? Your manners are _still_ deplorable and you are _still_ very foolish," he chastises, but she isn't convinced. She knows what he likes. And she knows how to use it against him.

"I've insulted you before and that's never stopped you. What does it say about someone who lets himself be repeatedly insulted by a fool, nevermind someone who acknowledges to possessing affection for one? I'd say that person is even more foolish. As for my manners," she appears leaning over his desk chair. "Well~ you're welcome to try and teach me", she flirts hotly, leaning close so that her lips tantalizingly press near his ear. "But only after you tell me how I was awoken," and then she pulls far away, walking a bit around his desk. She loses the game, but sacrifices have to be made and openings exploited.

"Not going to let that go, are you?" His eyes follow her around the length of his desk.

"Not a chance," she smiles, now in front of him.

He sighs, adjusting his black framed glasses. "Then I regret to inform you that I don't know how you were awoken."

Her eyes dart to his face, surprised. "What?"

"I neither know why you woke up when you did, nor what could have awoken you at all," he speaks lightly as if _this was a all game!_

She crosses the desk in three heavy strides: "You mean to tell me that you sent me into a coma without knowing if I could ever be woken up?!"

"Indeed."

 _Stupid, calm face._ She strikes him on the cheek, hard enough that his face whips to the side and draws blood.

And in a flash he grabs the back of her head by her silky hair, and pulls it down so that her eyes know right where to look; directly into his. " _Don't you ever do that again."_

"Or what?" She challenges.

A serrated knife is then pressed lightly into the skin of her neck, dividing their faces, which are considerably close.

 _Oh, really?_

She raises an eyebrow at the touch - _the knife I stabbed Ayato with_ \- and then leans in, against the painful pull of her hair, against the bite of the blade...and kisses his lips.

And soon enough, faint drops of blood cascade down the column of her throat, and the tugging force his hand had on her hair disappears along with the knife. That force, now pulls the opposite way. Towards him.

And he's kissing her back.

And then he's pulling back in the direction originally intended, though lighter this time, proving his caprice towards the situation, as if he can't make up his mind as to whether he desires her or hates her. _But it's all part of the game._ Then the pull gets harder as if punishing her for making him wait so long for this kiss. Softer as she cries out, then tentatively as he separates from her lips to dive down and capture the stray droplets of blood that his knife spilled.

She laughs at this.

"I knew you liked me, but I didn't know you hated me this much. Even in passion, your kiss is still _so angry_. That's your brand, your signature flavor: _bitter_." She hooks a finger under his chin and tilts it up so he'll meet her eyes. "An acquired taste."

He doesn't smile, but his eyes hold traces of his amusement at her humorous attempts of sardonicism.

"Such a fool," he whispers to her.

"You're one to talk."

And when he leans closer to sink his teeth into her neck, she makes sure to look right over his shoulder to meet the gaze of her older brother: Laito.

Envy is a green-eyed voyeur.

A green-eyed voyeur standing in the cracked doorway, within and without.

And she knows enough not to make a voyeur jealous. Jealous means making him fear losing her. Envy means she is already lost. Envy is the true killer, and she would make him _feel the sting_ of its emptiness. After all, to be envious is to be empty. And that's _precisely_ where she wants him.

Then the green is gone, and the ajar doorway becomes vacant once again.

She laughs a little, but it is bitter too. Reiji pauses his trail of kisses, so she looks down at him. And though he meets her eyes, he pushes her away. It's like he didn't see what he was looking for, or maybe he did and he just didn't like it.

"What's wrong?" She asks absently.

"You." It's abrupt and to the point which is unexpected. He's a lot bolder than she remembered.

"What?" She looks genuinely stunned and lost, like a child. "You... don't want me? I don't understan- No. Don't tell me. Was I wrong about you, Reiji? Was I?" Disdain quickly covering rejection and sharpening with every breath. "Here I thought you knew what you wanted. You certainly led me along thinking you weren't like those other confused little boys who have no idea what they want. And for all those high opinions you have of yourself! You're no better than them are you? _How unimpressive_."

"It's not that I don't want you," he looks at her, eyes steely. "I just don't want you like this."

"Like what?" She's humorless.

"Like _**her**_."

And she looks shocked, as if she can scarcely believe he just compared her to another. " _Who_?"

"Don't tell me you're still confused. After all this time... how can you still be so naive?" He says with surprise and frustration.

" _What the hell are you talking about_?!"

"I know _exactly_ what I want, Chouko-"

"I'm not so sure about that anymore-"

"I _don't want your mother_ , Chouko. I want you."

"What are you talking about...?"

"You don't want me. You didn't want me years ago and you don't want me now. You only came here to satiate your own curiosity, only _kissed_ me because you knew he was watching."

"You kissed me back-" she's incredulous.

"I let myself be fooled thinking you would be as you were years ago. An oversight, that shall not happen again," he turns away from her, but she won't let him walk away.

"Your point?"

He whirls around on her: "That little stunt you pulled with Laito, the _game_ you're playing with the rest of your brothers has Cordelia written all over it. That's her speaking through you. I want nothing to do with that _vile woman_ , I want only the sweet girl I knew all those years ago."

" _She grew up_ ," Chouko grits out, unamused.

"You've only been conscious for little over a week, so technically you _haven't_ grown up, you should not be changed. Yet you seem like a completely different person. Chouko," he leans into her, sincerity in his eyes: "don't play the fool, don't let her turn you into this-"

"I haven't been _turned_ into anything, this is who I am! That little girl you _thought_ you knew years ago is gone. I told you; _she grew up when her mother died._ And if you can't understand that then you don't know a thing about mothers," he voice lowers as she hisses breathlessly.

"You're wrong," he looks into her eyes, imploring her to see reason. "I do understand. I know that that girl isn't completely gone, she's just sleeping, waiting to be woken up. Just as I understand that the person in front of me now is merely a shadow of anger, despaired that her mother was lost-"

"I didn't lose my mother! She was _murdered_ , by the same people I _dared_ to call my brothers! I didn't lose my mother just as you didn't lose yours," she pauses and leans in with anger and malice. "Except I didn't kill mine, like _you_ killed _yours_."

"That doesn't mean I don't understand mothers, or that I don't understand your pain-"

" _No you_ _ **don't**_ _know how I feel! You killed your mother!"_ and she's yelling, practically screaming: " _You didn't love her like I love mine! How could you understand the bond between a mother and a child?! You never loved her! And she never loved you!"_

She scoffs with anger dripping with disdain.

" _How could you understand how I feel?_ _**Everything you know about mothers, you learned through**_ _ **books**_."

And she sees the change in him right away: the fact that he trembles from head to toe, hands clenching and unclenching with fury. But she's not even _near_ being done. And she won't let him scare her.

"Well? Go ahead. Go ahead and show me what a _gentleman_ you've become. Show me those _fine manners_ the butler taught you."

Because when she's in the wrong, she never fails to dig herself in deeper.

" _ **Get out.**_ _ **Now**_."

And deeper down inside, she is a little scared, but she has to have the last word. _Winning is everything._

"You haven't changed a bit," she scowls at him, eyes narrowed and glaring. "Just like I thought."

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝhalf break**

And deep down inside it doesn't really feel like she's changed, she feels like a completely new, individual person with almost no connection at all to the past. It's like she's been reincarnated, and can only sparingly remember the happy times.

* * *

 **#7 - NUMBER SEVEN**

" **To Be a Lady"**

 _Some years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _A harsh, sharp, loud sound struck the air like lightning, charged and powerful, waking a formerly sleeping Chouko and bringing her attention to the disturbance outside of her bedroom door. The little girl rubbed her eyes in a sleepy manner and stumbled drowsily until her fingers were on the handle of the door. Light cut into her room and she saw a tall, distressed woman with long purple waves standing with her back to the door. Mother. And the girl couldn't contemplate more on what she thought was the yelling of her dreams or the sharp sound that woke her up, because then Cordelia turned around to the newly awakened Chouko, with tears running down her face-_

" _What's wrong mommy?" Slowly she was beginning to realize that the shouting wasn't her dreams and that something was wrong: "I heard... Ayato, yelling... what's happening?" The drowsiness was slowly sobering and the confusion and panic setting in._

 _Suddenly the mother urgently grabbed her child by the shoulders with a genuinely worried expression on her beautiful face: "What did you hear him say?"_

" _He said... 'don't you dare'..." the child was confused, her mother's panic distressing her. "And then there was a loud sound- I?! Mother what_ happened _?!"_

" _Oh," the woman's face fell into blankness only wrinkled slightly by worry. "So that's all you heard, then…" Cordelia turned back to her daughter: "It's nothing really, it's just that I tried to get him to study. He refused. I said that I would tell his father and he threatened me. I tried to get him to_ calm down, _but," her voice fractured with emotion. "Then he slapped me!"_

 _The child gasped, horror and surprise written in her features: "I'm sure it was a mistake, I know he's sorry, I'll talk to him, he'll apologize-" she turned to find him._

" _No!" Cordelia grabbed her arm quickly. "He won't. I'm afraid he just won't listen to me anymore."_

" _No! He loves you!"_

" _I don't think he does anymore," the mother looked off into the air with sadness. "I'm afraid there's no hope, I can't get through to him...but maybe you can," she said looking at the girl._

" _What do you mean?" Chouko innocently asked._

" _He won't listen to me, but maybe he'll listen to you. You see, Ayato is the eldest, he's supposed to inherit the throne. But if he doesn't keep up with his studies, then he'll have to go to away-"_

" _No!"_

" _I'm afraid so," the mother put on a concerned expression as if that thought distressed her. "And if he goes away where I can't protect him, who knows what could happen! He could die!"_

" _No!"_

" _I can't let that happen," Cordelia grabbed Chouko's hands within her own. "_ We _can't let it happen," she looked into her daughter's eyes, "you have to help him."_

" _How I do it, mommy? How can I help him?!"_

" _You need to guide him, in my stead," Cordelia warned importantly. "You need to get him to listen, to make him study. Do you remember what I taught you about tough love?"_

" _Yes."_

" _You need to show him that. You need to guide him where I can't, you need to be strong for the both of us. Tough love is the best because it's the realest and the truest; it holds nothing back. You need to love him like that, only then can he fulfill his duty. Do you understand?"_

" _I think so. I need to love him, but what if that's not enough, what if he doesn't listen? Do I- push him in the lake?"_

" _No!" The woman laughed out loud. "No, I don't think that would be necessary. You can be a little calmer than that," she said gently and firmly. "But it is still_ _vital_ _that you punish him when he doesn't listen or does wrong."_

" _And... what if he does right, what if he does a good job?"_

" _Then you do this;" and beautiful woman took her daughter's chin in one hand, leaned down, and kissed her on the lips._

 _Chouko's face blushed scarlet red, a difficult color for vampires to muster: "I-I do that, every time?"_

 _Cordelia laughed again, shaking her head in amusement. "No, not every time, only when you feel that he's especially earned it, but you have to make him work for it, however."_

" _Are you- are you sure that that's alright?" Chouko said uncertainly: "I thought only daddies and mommies could do that."_

" _No, no, no!" Cordelia shook her head dismissively. "It's completely fine! See, when two people love each other, like you and I do, then it is okay to express that love through a kiss. It's all a part of a woman's charm, you remember what I said about a woman's charm, right?"_

" _Yes." Chouko paused and then began to recite; "a woman uses it to get a man do what she wants, in order to help_ him _and help_ herself _."_

" _Exactly," the mother nodded in approval. "Well, kissing is just another part of a woman's charm, and another key to helping Ayato succeed."_

" _But, I'm not a woman, mommy. I'm not beautiful or kind like you," Chouko began to fixate when she realized this plan couldn't succeed. "I don't know how to be a woman, I'm_ not _a woman-"_

" _You_ must _be, if you want to help Ayato. You must_ learn _. You do want to help him, don't you?" the mother asked._

" _I do! But how do I learn, mommy?"_

" _Through practice. Practice makes perfect!"_

" _And how do I practice?"_

 _The gorgeous woman sighed irritably, annoyance saturating her tone:_ "Must _I tell you everything? Aren't you supposed to be a big girl now?"_

" _I'm sorry, mommy," the girl looked down, feeling chided, bashful. "It's just- you're so beautiful and kind, I don't know if it's possible to be perfect, like you," the little girl looked at her feet, scared of seeing disappointment and anger on her mother's face._

 _And Cordelia smirked to herself, a satisfied glint in her eyes, making her voice deceptively light. "Well, that's why we practice, don't we? And by practice, I mean on your other brothers. Not the illegitimate ones like the other whores' sons, but on Laito and Kanato. By practicing on them, you can better perfect your womanly charms and learn how to better help Ayato."_

 _Chouko frowned: "But mommy? Laito said that a woman's charm was dangerous, what if I hurt Ayato or my other brothers?"_

" _Laito doesn't really understand the concept," Cordelia explained. "Which is why I've begun teaching him more about it. Though, what he's learning differs slightly from yours as he's a boy and a year older."_

" _Oh."_

" _But not to worry! When you're older, I'll teach you_ _ **another side**_ _of the woman's charm, and perhaps I'll let you sit in on a lesson between me and Laito. Maybe I'll even let you join us in the learning process," the woman smiled._

" _You're so nice, mommy!" The child beamed._

" _I know. And, my little butterfly?" The mother called out to her daughter._

" _Yes, mommy?"_

" _Take this," she put something in the girl's hands._

" _Chocolate...lipstick?" She looked at her mother with questions furrowing her brows._

" _Kanato-kun likes chocolate, no?"_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#7 - NUMBER SEVEN**

* * *

Chouko doesn't waste a second lingering near Reiji's room, she just teleports away. And when she arrives at her dusty destination, her eyes tear up for an entirely acute reason. The dust _does_ sting, but it's only a contributing factor to her tears.

 _They really locked all memory of_ **her** _away._

But somehow she can't find it in her to care much: _wasn't she meant to be cherished, preserved, and remembered only by those who_ truly _loved her?_ It's fitting. Chouko breathes in dust and stale air, the room hasn't been touched in decades.

It's like a time-capsule. _It's perfect._

 _They won't come here, they wouldn't dare disturb us._ And she's so tired of focusing all her energy on fighting other people. She just wants to live in _**her**_ memory again. So she pulls back the heavy covers of the king-sized purple bed, and gets under the sheets.

And only when she feels quite secure does she allow herself to cry.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: This chapter was pretty eventful and some new things were revealed about the characters. What do you guys think?**

Review for a preview of the next chapter~!


	9. Chapter 8 & a half

**I had a mini hiatus, school ya know, and I'm back but still pretty busy. The good news is whether you knew it or not we're pretty far along in the story right now. I give the ending a maximum of six more chapters away. At most. Though something crazy could happen as it sometimes does. I didn't write much while I was away (procrastination) but I did write one tough scene upcoming in the next chapter, which will really help the process when we get there.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **No.8.5 "What Killed the Cat"**

 **#6 - NUMBER SIX**

" **To Be Loved"**

 _Shortly after_ _ **#5 "Attention"...**_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _When he had left his sister alone in the gardens, an impatient frustration hastened his steps. He had felt determined and resolute in getting answers. But as he stood outside of his mother's room, feet pausing and making him hover in the threshold of the door, there was only hesitance. The soft strum of his heart in his chest, each sickening pulse sending a dosage of apprehension into his bloodstream. The nerves in his feet tingled, something equally gross and frustrating clogging his throat and almost making him choke on his words:_

 _"Mom," he almost stuttered. He was glad that he didn't. Mother would hate that. She would see it as weak, pathetic; two things that make a person invisible. And truly, never in his life until this very moment watching his mother continue to stare at her own reflection in the vanity and comb her hair, never did he feel invisible like this. She didn't turn her back to face him, didn't look up to catch his eyes in the mirror, pause her actions, or at least give one sign that she acknowledged him. She just continued to rake her long, elegant purple hair as if he wasn't there at all._

 _"Mommy's busy," she said, face so perfectly straight that he almost didn't recognize the words as her own. She didn't even blink. With her back to him and all that hair cascading down she was beautiful and cold, just another uncommonly gorgeous woman. Not a mother. Specifically, not his mother._

 _And she was busy again._  
 _"You said that before," he remembered, because she was always busy. It was different now, though, because he had never needed her help before._

 _"And Mommy's still busy now," she said carelessly. She stopped for a second and he thought that she just might turn around and give him her attention, but instead she just stroked her marble face and decided to apply a deep rouge lipstick. Pursing her lips satisfactorily after it was done, she took up her comb again and resumed its work._

 _What was this feeling? Normally he didn't care much who she gave her attention to; he enjoyed the carefree spirit that his brothers could never know. Ayato was restricted by his laborious studies, Kanato burdened by his obsession with pleasing her, whereas Laito was completely at ease, free to spend his time how he wanted. As long as he didn't get in her way, that is. That's what it meant to be the youngest child,_ _ **the youngest boy**_ _, his mind corrected. But until now, standing in the doorway like a trespasser, he never noticed how very little his mother seemed to care about the triplets. Disdainful and dismissive...what was it about them that was so disappointing to her? So...unremarkable. And how had they never noticed before, his brothers especially._

 _ **They spend too much time with her**_ _...his thoughts whispered._

 _If I were to be noticed by her, make myself too noticeable enough to grab her attention I would be just another inconsequential little boy in her way, plagued with hopes of pleasing her. If I stay around her too long, won't I be caught up in her path as well? Many thoughts along these lines ran through his mind, the chief among them being that the more time he spent around her the less free he would be._

 _He paused, his heels nearly on a pivot with the thought of leaving this discussion and her where they were, where they couldn't disrupt his life. One foot in the door and one out, it was as if no matter where he stepped his life would become different in the outcome._

 _At least, if he spoke with her now maybe he'd understand this nameless feeling._

 _...He couldn't let these thoughts deter him, nor the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach every time he was in her presence. It was finally time to get his answers, he needed to push on, then he could get away from her;_

 _"I just want to know-" sweaty palms half-nervously smoothed pristine trousers. "How do I make girls like me?" The room around him fell out of focus, what would she say in return?_

 _"What?" Cordelia blinked, hand not pausing in the slightest while in the sweep of her hair. Did she even hear him?_

 _"How do I make a girl like me?" He repeated, more sure this time, more anxious than ever. Anxious to get away from her, anxious to get an answer._

 _"Do you have a particular girl in mind?" She said this in a toneless, bored manner; she was not really interested in his answer at all: the inconsequential feelings of an inconsequential boy._

 _"Yes."_

 _"And?" She doubted this would be worth her time._

 _And then there was that curious, nauseating yet pleasant feeling in his stomach. What was it? Anxiety?_

 _"...It's Chou-chan."_

 _Cordelia paused._

 _Laito always felt like Mother was too beautiful, too striking, too magnetic and impressive. She was difficult to be around without feeling overwhelmed. And Chouko was beautiful too, but her beauty had a calmness to it, an ease. A warmth wrapping around you like a blanket, it made you feel safe and not alarmed like Mother's did. Chouko's beauty exuded from her and shone especially in her laughter and exuberance. To put it simply she was everything bright and happy and stable about the Manor. She was the freedom and joy that he loved about his life._

 _She was his favorite sibling._

 _He admired her very much. She was the coolest person he knew, even if she was a girl. But even though they were siblings and therefore spent a lot of time together, he always felt like she spent less time with him than the other two triplets. That they weren't as close. Over the years he had tried to figure out why and eventually came to the conclusion that she didn't find him as interesting, and that's why she didn't like him as much. He had no problems with his relationships with his triplet brothers, but they were guys. Maybe he and Chouko weren't as close because she was a girl. He figured that could be the case anyway._

 _And he wanted to be interesting to her. Wanted them to be close. She's the person who always understood him the most._

 _So if there was any one person that he wanted to like him, it was Chouko._

 _"Really?" Cordelia stopped applying her makeup, put the brush down, her devious green eyes shimmering with a wicked and perverse delight only seen by her reflection. She turned around to face Laito. And she looked at him. Really looked, like it was the first time she ever saw him before. And he looked every bit the self-conscious, youthful, unimpressive pre-teen that she knew him to be, knew that he must have felt if he came to see her like this._

 _But there was something in the symmetry of his face, a remnant of something almost...handsome. It was like she'd seen it before but never recognized it clearly until now. Something about his face seemed so familiar and yet the way he carried himself seemed so breakable and vulnerable. She tapped the chair with long fingernails in tainted mirth._

 _Oh what was this feeling~?_

" _That's very interesting," the woman commented, her face coming alive with every inflection in her words, detail by detail, transforming in a transfixing way. There was something so engaging and lively about her all at once that you just wanted to look and look again to find the secret of it. "Now," he had her full attention. She was animated. "Before we continue, I have to know if you'll be dedicated to this. So tell me; how much do you like her?" Her hands gripped the back of the chair with rapt interest._

 _The question was unthinkable. Automatic. And above all: so, so innocent_ _. "More than anything," he said. "She's my favorite person in the whole world, well, except for you, Mom." Laito had never really felt close to her, so using such personal nicknames tasted somewhat artificial on his tongue, but they did a significant job in the way of making her seem less imposing._

 _There was a laugh in her smile, a poison apple sheen to her candy green eyes. "Except for me, huh?..." And the smile ended there at her lips and unfurled in her words. She was a cat, poised to get to the cream: "So you really want to know how to make her like you?"_

 _"Yes," this he was sure about._

 _She looked at him carefully now. "And you'll listen and do everything I say?" That was important._

 _"Yes..."_

 _What was this feeling, so similar yet different from the one he felt before?_

 _Apprehension or anticipation?_

 _She thought about it for a second. Contemplating animatedly as if she hadn't already made up her mind the moment she heard Little Bitch's name. "Okay...I've decided I will help make her love you," she stood from her seat, towering over his nine year old height, and took a step closer. "But you have to keep these two rules in mind. One:_ _ **always** listen to what mommy says," step. "Two: **never** disobey mommy," step. Step. "Because if you do break these rules, then I can't guarantee how successful you'll be with her. You understand?" Step. Step. Step._

 _She was right in front of him now, as intimidating as possible with him standing in the shadow of her superior height._

 _"Yes!" He would finally get the answer he wanted. And all he had to do was say yes. It was so much simpler than he thought. Why had he never come to her before? "Thank you, Mom."_

 _"You're welcome," there was something very disarming about that fanged smile rimmed with too perfect red lips. "Now, let's begin. See, it's all about charm; girls like charming men. But more than that, it's about stimulation; you're only as appealing and interesting as you can perform. That's why an exercise is_ _called stimulation," a hand with insidious claws wrapped around his small wrist, beckoning him forward. "Here, come in, I'll teach you all about it, and through it, you'll learn all about **love** ~"_

 _The door shut upon the room and the rest of his childhood._

.

.

.

 _End_

* * *

 **FLASHBACK**

 _Seconds before_ _ **#7 "To Be a Lady"...**_

.

.

.

 _Lightning crackled and the scene flashed upon an angry demoness, beautiful like sin and just as lethal. Before her stood a boy, young, not yet a teen, small under the towering height of the menacing woman yet not cowering. He snarled back at her with fangs of his own._

" _If you don't start taking your work seriously," the purple-haired woman hissed: "then I'll kill her."_

 _The image of an equally purple, but smaller, more innocent smiling female appeared in his mind's eye. A little girl nothing like purple demon in front of him, one whose nnocence needed to be protected. "_ _ **Don't you dare**_ _!"_

 _The clawed fingernails of a hand viciously cut through soft skin and Cordelia slapped Ayato._

 _A harsh, sharp, loud sound struck the air like lightning, charged and powerful, waking a formerly sleeping Chouko and bringing her attention to the disturbance outside of her bedroom door._

" _Don't_ _ **you**_ _dare!" The woman's face contorted into a nightmare as she whispered with perilous emphasis at the boy. Its breathiness only enhancing the life-endangering quality to the threat._

 _And finally his face showed the terror that she commanded, the fear that would appease only her demonic soul. And then both their eyes cut to the side as movement was heard inside the door of the girl in question._

 _The little girl rubbed her eyes in a sleepy manner and stumbled drowsily until her fingers were on the handle of the door._

 _And the mother's eyes flashed dangerously at her son. Yes, he was her son. And he saw the warning in them that told him to leave and leave quickly. And he was scared for the girl they awoke, but knew underneath that frightful fear that his presence would only worsen the situation. And so he bolted as quietly and quickly as was possible for a young vampire._

 _Light cut into the girl's room and she saw a tall, distressed woman with long purple waves standing with her back to the door. Mother. And the girl couldn't contemplate more on what she thought was the yelling of her dreams or the sharp sound that woke her up, because then Cordelia turned around to the newly awakened Chouko, with tears running down her face-_

" _What's wrong, mommy?"_

 _And though the mother's eyes were filled with tears, there was some satisfaction, some anxious and perverse joy so unfamiliar to the innocence of the child that she never even saw it. But it was there. It was_ always _there._

 _And that was the woman's cue._

.

.

.

 _End._

* * *

 **BONUS FLASHBACK**

 _Sometime between_ **#6 "To Be Loved"** _and_ **#11 "The Big Break"** _(inclusive)_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _She sighed with a laugh, something amused and bitter in her eyes. "Oh, Little Bitch~" she whispered to the air._

 _Lying down on the bed, voluminous purple hair splayed out underneath her she seemed to be at peace, but Laito knew better. At another time he might have enjoyed this rare calm that only came about after one of their particularly intense "sessions", but sometimes she said things distractedly, off-guard when she thought he wasn't listening and those things were potentially important._

 _"What was that?" He asked, keeping his voice somewhat neutral, to make sure he didn't sound too interested._

 _"Hmm?" she peeked at him, unconcerned yet unsettled around the edges. "Oh, it's just something I say sometimes." And surely she knew that now after he heard it there was no letting it fade away into nothing._

 _"What do you mean?" He stood, he wanted to hear it now._

 _"A name I like to call someone..." She spoke wistfully towards the ceiling as if he never interrupted her and she was alone._

 _"Who?" He prompted._

 _"No one specifically…" he very much doubted that. "Just a person, generally a girl, just a_ _nuisance ," her voice hardened. "A pest, inferior in every way. A **toy** ," her eyes sharpened like a blade._

 _"Like the sacrificial brides?" He stretched his mind to wrap around what she was saying, to understand._

 _"Just like them, except sometimes you can't ever be rid of them."_

 _That didn't make as much sense to him. But he thought he understood the gist of it._

 _A pest._

 _A nuisance._

 _A toy._

 _Inferior._

" _Little Bitch," he repeated, tasting the words. There was something distinct about it._

 _No one ever knew where Laito got that pet name from and he never knew of course who it originally belonged to. That the name he used to torment countless sacrificial brides, was the name that his mother used for his sister._

.

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **A/N: So because of my absence I decided to insert a bonus flashback to this flashback chapter (which btw, will occur every time the title number has a fraction in it) but I'm not completely sure if it works with the rest of the chapter. Maybe it was too early for this flashback idk. What do you guys think?**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: I strongly recommend looking over a previous chapter before reading, because I know I write a lot and it can be difficult to remember key details over the course of a few weeks.**

 **With that being said: enjoy!**

 **№➒|❝Heart of Gold❞**

She pauses a breath from the door. Something sickening causes a feeling of lightness that makes her heart no heavier than a feather... and yet there is also a horrible sinking feeling that sends paralyzing dread through her veins... and with each breath it leaks from every pore of her body. Yet somehow the feeling is irrevocably softened by concern. She wants to run, she wants throw up, or cry because she feels _so scared_ , but she does none of these things. Why? Because she _cares_ , more about the person on the other side of the door than herself right now. The thought is terrifying, but the truth ultimately cannot be denied. So instead of doubting herself and again asking: _why am I here_ , instead she asks: _why am I the_ _only one_ _here?_

And with that one question again all her doubts are melted by the warmth of compassion and Yui resolves herself to knock.

Knock. Knock. Knock!

"It's me," she calls out in her easily distinguishable feminine chirp. It's a human formality meant to make light of the situation. Unnecessary, for the vampire within had certainly identified her by scent long before she ever even neared the door. Nevermind the food platter in her hands.

There's a pause…"come in," calls a voice from within.

And once again Yui takes a step into the room that was forbidden. The room that stole the loving memory of her father away from her. The room that made her an orphan for the end of time. She tries not to look at the shelf that destroyed her hopes and made her so completely alone in the world. Instead she looks past the dust, grime, and forgotten relics towards the only other occupant in the room resting underneath the covers of a dirty queen-sized bed. The purple of her long hair peeks out from the sheers, and Yui's heart stops for a moment with the sense of deja-vu.

 _She's not her mother._

Oh how difficult it was to keep back the memories of the night that started it all…

The other woman seems to be in a similar state of reminiscence for she does not turn at her entrance, just remains with her back facing the blonde, lying down the sheets covering everything except her head, eyes presumably staring at the wall. Though she is perfectly motionless Yui knows she's not asleep. Though she liked to portray the guise of strength, Yui knows that when a person spends a week locked up in the room of a deceased parent that generally means something is wrong.

 _She's grieving._

"Hey…" she hasn't spoken to her for some time now, their last conversation having so many feelings surrounding it. It feels like a lifetime ago. "I brought you some food," Yui says, eyes searching for a place to put the tray down, walking over to a wooden vanity to do just that.

And though she tries, Yui finds that even in these circumstances she cannot summon up the pure empathy and care that she felt when she first heard Chouko's voice. _I was so innocent then._ Yui knows her voice came out choked and her tone impersonal, still affected by remnants of those bitter, angry, disappointed feelings. She cannot let them go no matter how she tries, no matter how she was taught as a child not to hold grudges. _That was when I lived at the church… I was a different person… Will I ever be pure again?_ The other woman remains motionless. And as Yui sees that Chouko is still deeply entrenched in mourning and sadness her resentment flickers. This is her mother's room.

 _She hasn't left these walls in eight days._

"Human food cannot sustain me, Miss Komori," the woman with purple hair mutters solemnly, shocking Yui momentarily. "Nevertheless...thank you."

Somewhere inside Yui's heart eases with relief, glad that she did not come here to no effect. She smiles happily for a second, but it's nothing like the carefree smile of years ago. And she's not completely without unease.

There are so many emotions going through her at once: anger because this girl betrayed her, empathy because she knows what it's like to lose someone and feel so wretched and without hope, discomfort because she knows what this woman is capable of… _murder_.

And it's that last emotion that wins out; the part of her that keeps telling her to _get away, get far away._

"Then I'll just leave it for you," Yui says spotting some available space on the edge of a vanity mirror toward the corner of the room. _I'll leave it there and go._ Striding over to the vanity, Yui makes to put the tray down. She notices faintly that the only available area on the surface of the vanity not cluttered is a large space only occupied by a single hairbrush.

 _I'll just move that and-_

" **Don't**." Chouko's voice cuts in so suddenly that the objects on the tray in the blonde human's hands clatter and she almost drops it. " _Please don't.."_ her voice is so soft then that Yui almost doesn't hear it; "Please don't move it." And then her voice recovers so seamlessly that another person might have thought they imagined the tremble and waver in her words, the fracture exposing concealed sadness.

The blonde girl stops.

But Yui had heard it, and she recognized it then, right away, for what it was. How many times in this house has she cried alone and tried to bury her tears to keep them from overflowing and others seeing?

Too many.

And when she looks at the brush her heart fractures similarly and somehow she is beyond herself and sees Chouko and the situation with perfect clarity: that the long purple strands trapped in the soft teeth of the brush were not Chouko's but her mother's. That the brush was placed deliberately on the middle of the vanity.

 _And I so desperately wanted to get away from her, so selfishly thinking about myself. And she's hurting all alone._

" _I'm so sorry_ ," Yui whispers.

* * *

 **#1 - NUMBER ONE**

" **The Most Beautiful"**

 _Many, many years ago..._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Chouko didn't get to brush Mommy's hair often -because Mommy didn't like her touching her hair- but when she did, she was positively overjoyed; it was one of those few special times when they really got to bond._

 _"All done!"_

 _The little girl finished and smiled. And though it took hours, it was worth every minute because at the end the long stream of luscious purple hair was brushed to silky perfection that anyone would envy. Truly, the girl believed that her mother was the most beautiful woman in the world._

 _"You look beautiful, Mommy," Chouko smiled over the top of her mother's head._

 _Cordelia smirked at herself in the mirror, sitting with such entitlement it was as if her vanity stool was a throne: "I know."_

 _"Daddy will love it," the little girl complimented further, but the older woman didn't hear. She was too busy thinking of herself. Thinking of the shoes she would wear, the particular article of jewelry so that it caught the light just right, the dress that would be the most jaw dropping and awe-inspiring, so that when she entered the room there wasn't a **chance in Hell** that her dear husband could look away. Her beloved Karl would keep his eyes locked on her and only her the whole night. There was no room for anything less than perfection._

" _Keep brushing," the mother ordered looking at herself again for any faults._

 _There was no room for anything less than perfection._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _The room was a sea of undying and beautiful faces, each immortal aristocrat glittering importantly like stars in their own right. But they all dimmed in comparison to the one face that stood above all: Karlheinz, King of the Vampires. With his youthful face, gorgeous green eyes sharpening with every millennia, long sweeping silver hair only achievable over the course of an eternity, and flowing red robes highlighting his impressive height and overall powerful aura, he certainly had no peers. He was equal to none._

 _And he preferred it that way._

 _"Hello, Cordelia," he greeted his first wife cordially, watching with empty green eyes as she curtsied and her face lit up with anticipation. She had succeeded in getting his attention above all the women and men of the soiree! It didnt matter that all the men there looked at her with hungry eyes, their wives and daughters envious and pale. None of it could compare because_ _ **her**_ _Karlheinz was looking at her and suddenly she was a child again and they were the only two people in the world. No other wives, no useless children, just them two._

 _Cordelia glowed in her striking crimson dress like an absolute star and she opened her mouth excitedly to speak to him, but then he turned to the girl beside her instead and smiled: "And my dearest girl. Chouko," his voice became velvet, eyes and tone much softer and more intimate than with his wife. That ancient, youthful, flawless face almost looked...fond. When was the last time he looked at her like that._

 _And then that vision of them two disappeared and Cordelia was_ _ **acutely aware**_ _of the worthless, snivelling child standing next to her. Her thoughts only on her husband, Cordelia had forgotten about Chouko's pitiful existence. But Karlheinz hadn't: "I dare say you grow more lovely each day. All that beautiful long hair~ purple just like your mother's," he spoke so eloquently, every word dripping with a seamless smoothness only known to a king, it was like he was singing her praise, not even caring to notice his wife's radiant face crumble to nothing. Cordelia used to fantasize about killing all of her children and the whores and their sons so that only she and Karlheinz could be together. Just as it was when they first met… She was just a silly little girl in all those silly dresses with her long hair, but he looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the world… like…_

 _And Cordelia looked at Karlheinz admiring Chouko and it was like looking back in time…_

 _ **That Little Bitch**_

 _Her heart stopped. But Karlheinz kept going on:_

" _Pretty soon you will be more beautiful than even her. I have no doubt that you will outshine her in due time. Looks like someone's got some competition." Karlheinz said to the pair, sparing the mother a teasing, goading glance of his sharp eyes before turning away again to mingle with the other distinguished aristocrats. Or perhaps he was just going back to his other wives._

 _But it did not matter at that moment, because Chouko, a small, nearly unnoticeable thing compared to the brilliance of the other woman, in her childish pink dress, looked uneasily up at her mother, whose green eyes were steadily sharpening, glaring spiteful daggers at her._

 _Her_ _beautiful_ _daughter would soon grow up and "outshine her"… and then all of Karl's love would dry up and he would have no need for her-_

 _It was only a matter of time._

 _Jealousy was an unforgiving, green-eyed demoness.  
_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

" _ **Chouko!**_ _Come here! You're supposed to brush my hair again!" The mother called out impatiently, irritation saturating her tone. The walls practically shook at the woman's angry tone, it was a wonder the small room could contain her wrath. The happy glow of the party had been killed in one deathly swoop, and was now souring in the aftertaste._

 _"Coming!" The girl in question arrived and scurried in quickly like a scared mouse, trying to make herself as small as possible, before beginning the task._

 _"What took you so long?" The incensed woman spat. And though the woman was scolding her daughter she only had searing eyes for her reflection, ripping the elaborate clips out of her hair and throwing them aside with ire._

 _ **It was only a matter of time before Karl replaced her.**_ " _Remember what I said about little girls and soon-to-be young ladies?"_

"They must follow their parents' orders." Chouko said nervously while automatically getting to the brushing of her mother's hair.

 _ **But if I just kill her...**_

 _"And that includes punctuality! Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you?" She said irate._

 _Chouko didn't answer._

 _"I asked a question. Are you even listening to me?!" Cordelia barked then looked up from admiring herself in the mirror, to see her daughter's reflection._

 _ **Karlheinz would never forgive me...his project is too important…!**_

 _The woman looked menacingly into the mirror. The girl didn't catch her eyes, head cast down, but something else did catch the woman's._

 _"What have you done to your hair...?"_

 _The short purple, choppy strands fell at just about her chin, uneven and jagged and painful to look at; clearly the result of rash and tactless snips. A hideous sight that held no trace of the beautiful purple waves that had graced her shoulders, the waves which her father had complimented only hours ago._

 _"I...cut it..." The child's face was hidden among choppy strands, but what could be seen was trembling._

 _"Because?" The mother's voice was hard and harsh, not softened by care even slightly._

 _ **How could Karl love such a pathetic thing?!**_

 _"Because," Chouko sniffled, wringing her hands and looking distraught, tears leaking from those expressive eyes. She looked up: "I didn't want Mommy to be sad!"_

 _"Mommy isn't sad," Cordelia's voice immediately booked no argument, sharp and admonishing. "Sadness is for the weak and pitiful," she hissed._

 _ **I can't kill her...**_

 _"But- what daddy said-"_

 _"Doesn't matter-"_

 _"But Mommy," the girl cried in defense, "he's wrong!"_

 _"You_ _ **dare** to question the words of your father-!"_

 _"Because Mommy is the most beautiful. That's why."_

 _"Ah." Her anger evaporated like water. Cordelia looked away from her sobbing daughter and back at herself in the mirror and_ _smiled. "Yes, that's right."_

 _She paused for one moment in consideration._

 _ **I can't kill her, but...**_

 _Cordelia suddenly turned around and grabbed her daughter's small hands "...You know...how about I do your hair this time?"_

 _"...huh?" The little girl stopped crying, her shoulders pausing in their shaking, and her tearful face looked pathetically up at her mother._

 _ **If I can't kill her, then...**_

 _"I could clean it up for you," Cordelia persuaded. "Just a touch up. I wouldn't want you looking any less than_ _my daughter , would I?"_

 _Chouko smiled and laughed a little laugh half-choked with tears, still sniffling. "Really?"_

 _"Really," Cordelia's calm green eyes assured. "Come on," she got up from the stool and motioned to it. "Sit down. And pass me those scissors."_

 _The mother stood behind the daughter, now seated upon the vanity's stool. And with the acquiescence of the scissors, then Cordelia began._

 _And while the little girl smiled as her hair was being refined into something more acceptable, the mother could only think that never again would anyone compare her daughter to herself. There would only be_ _ **one** lady with the beautiful long purple waves. **She** would always be the most beautiful._

 _ **I won't lose to my daughter.**_

 _And so she cut the hair shorter._

 _Snip!_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#1 - NUMBER ONE **

* * *

"There's no need to apologize," Chouko whispers quietly. But Yui hears it; the quality in her tone ringing softly and clearly like a little bell. The absolute and uncompromised _emptiness_. The _wretchedness_ slowly spinning around in the bitterness of the room, infecting the mentality of its occupants, all the joy and life fading away like the warmth from a corpse. As Chouko lies there in the bed back turned and faced against the wall Yui looks around her at the dusty room and sees it for the tomb that it is.

 _Cordelia is dead and Chouko is slowly dying with her._

 _How can I possibly stand by?_

And that is the deciding factor.

"Do you want to- um, do something?" Yui asks, the food is cold in her hands.

"Do what...?" The voice replies lifelessly.

"Anything," _anything to get you out of this room. "_ I don't know, um, we could go for a walk-? Or-"

"No thank you… I don't want to do anything. I just want to _sleep,"_ her voice breaks. " _I'm so tired of everything-!"_ she cries out restlessly, her soul so obviously tormented. "I _just_ want to close my eyes and sleep…"

But Yui knows the danger of what Chouko so harmlessly speaks about. She guesses that Chouko has not gotten up from the bed once in the eight days that she's been shut inside this room. The constant fatigue and lack of energy no matter how much time already spent asleep was a great sign of morbid depression.

 _She shouldn't be sleeping at all, she needs to get out of this room…_

"Well, sleeping will feel much better if you get some fresh air," Yui suggests as an alternative. "There are some beautiful sections of the garden to see. How about we step outside for a bit and then you can come back and-"

" _I'm so tired...!"_ Chouko cries out again like a sad broken record of few phrases. "So tired…! I just want to sleep...just sleep!" And then suddenly she begins sobbing uncontrollably: " _But every time I close my eyes_ _ **she's**_ _right there..!"_

Yui throws her discomfort and attempts at polite distance to the wind and swiftly rounds the bedside, crouching next to the crying vampire's covered face.

" _It's okay_ ," Yui comforts, eyes wrinkled in empathy. " _It's okay_ ," Yui pleads with her to listen through the veil of tears of hands covering her beautiful face. "You can come to my room and I'll watch over you," she says softly, assuring her again: "I promise _nothing_ will happen, she _won't_ visit you, not while I'm there keeping you safe. Okay?" Yui looks to her for a response, doe eyes large and gentle with pure concern.

Through a chaos of tears and sobs and shaking the immortal woman shudders out an " _okay"_ whereby Yui promptly wraps her arms around the girl's shoulders and whisks her away to her pink room.

And though behind the vampire woman's shaking hands her face is streaked with genuine tears at her mother's passing, underneath that is a selfish, prideful hardness that resents being seen in a time of weakness. That frustration certainly adds to the fury of the tears. But further, deeper still, buried beneath the fury and pain is a glimmer of satisfaction.

She had found a way back into the blonde's heart, after all.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

For the next three days and nights Chouko's "nightmares" force her to sleep in Yui's bed. And though the blonde can admit that at first the idea was somewhat uncomfortable, she has gotten used to the presence of the other female to the point that it can almost be...comforting. It also helps that the brothers won't come and bother her while Chouko sleeps there.

As for the other woman, she feels something nearly similar. In spite of her outward front she resents the fact that none of her brothers will seek her out anymore -she won't even think of that night in the cell with Kanato, the _crazy basket-case that he is_ \- and still even though she hates the simple essence of what the other female _is_ -weak, pitiful and most of all _human-_ she resents even more the idea of being lonely. So for now she comforts herself with the idea that the blonde is a sycophantic pet that wishes to please her and _certainly_ needs her more than she needs her. It especially helps that with the human's trust and goodwill again Chouko can begin to set her next assassination attempt into motion. Yui being the tool, of course.

Yes, she had spent a long time mourning the death of her mother in her old room to little accomplishment. But she had not been moping for the entire eight days. There was no way in her sadness she could ever forget the _reason_ behind her mother's death. And so, while her hiatus was spent in somber solitude, it also gave her ample time and privacy to plot the next death in the household. Her time spent contemplating made her realize the two major faults in her plans that were sure to get in the way next time:

Shuu and Subaru.

Otherwise, the rest would follow. And so, while Yui was getting her beauty sleep just as Chouko had so _caringly suggested,_ Chouko makes it her goal of the day to get those two obstacles firmly out of the way.

Standing scarcely even three feet away, he looks to all the world like he is sleeping peacefully. She knows better that his careful mask is simply to get people to leave him alone. But she is no fool, she won't be sent away. In fact, his peaceful, happy facade only serves to irritate her.

She resents the fact that he can act so calmly with his eyes closed even when he knows she's standing so close to him.

 _The pretentious bastard!_

But she cannot show that she is so bothered, for that is weakness as well. She has to be strong, she has to be impervious. Calm and tough mixed with cool disdain should do it: she opens her mouth to speak-

"You should be careful, you know."

"Sorry?" She's cut off, lost for words, surprised.

She resents the fact that he caught her off guard.

"You should be careful," he repeats with not an eye opened to witness the shock on her face. "They might love you, but there's only so much they'll allow you to get away with."

She resents the fact that he got the first word.

 _So I shall have to have the last._

"I could say the same to you. I know you told father. Throwing me behind bars? Thought I'd let you get away with that?" She _resents_ it.

"Didn't really care..."

She hates it _so much._

"You should," _I'm not to be trifled with. "_ Things are changing around here," but she will measure her voice with calmness. "The tides are coming in and many will swept up with it. And you don't want to be one of those unfortunate souls."

"Tides?" He questions. "Sounds peaceful."

" _Blood-red tides_ ," she corrects. "And I doubt anyone will go peacefully. But they will go, and you will too if you don't watch out," she warns with weighted emphasis. "I have no grudges against you, Shuu. Your neutrality to issues in the house has always been the trait of yours that I've admired most. A word of advice? Stay out of this one." She threads calmly, and then her voice is steel: "And don't think you can hide in the background and secretly plot to take me down from the shadows. I'll know if you're in my way, and I'll let you know just as well. Why not sleep through this storm? You're good at that," she condescends and patronizes him like she's seen Reiji do to him so many times before. That's how she knows he won't do anything back.

But even though Shuu's eyes don't see the expression, he hears it in her voice, and sees it for what it is. Her threats, her manner.

 _Reiji does it better._

 _Though he would certainly be proud to hear her now._

The golden-haired child almost laughs at the thought, but restrains himself because he knows if Chouko hears it she'll never leave him alone. And then he wonders if Reiji will ever know that he influenced her just like she had influenced him?

* * *

 **#4 - NUMBER FOUR**

" **When We Were Young"**

 _Years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Shuu wasn't very observant at a young age. He only noticed the obvious and tended to miss the more obscure, smaller things. "The mark of an unsophisticated imbecile," was what his brother would say. He always had something to say, never anything new, of course, so he'd spend his time learning big, new, fancy words so he could spin the same old insults in a different way. Reiji's distaste for him was obvious, so he noticed it even early on. But Reiji's insults were little, petty, insignificant. So he paid them no mind and carried on his carefree, exuberant way. At least when Mother wasn't around to force him into studies, that is._

 _And though Reiji's resentment was obvious and his insults were sly, there was one thing about him that fell right in the middle and so it took a longer time for him to notice._

 _Reiji was absolutely fascinated by the triplet's sister._

 _From what Shuu cared to tell about his brother, he spent an inordinate, large amount of time reading and studying by himself. Less frequently, but coming in second, he spent time studying in the presence of Mother. To any outside viewer it essentially seemed that studying was all Reiji Sakamaki did. However, there was a slither, the smallest amount of time he spent observing Chouko. This time was harder to pinpoint, because it was spread unevenly across his other activities'._

 _But sure enough, if he heard her laughter carry up to his seat in the library he would listen would listen out for a phrase of conversation, eyes pausing on a word, stilling and unfocusing to pinpoint her voice better. If he was reading and happened to catch her purple tresses in the corner of his eyes he would pause his gaze and ever so imperceptibly look with pure peripheral vision so that he could watch her without anyone knowing. These small behaviors were very difficult to place and put a name to, but eventually Shuu did, and that name was resoundingly; Chouko Sakamaki._

 _But then came the harder part; why? What made Reiji so aware of her, his senses so attuned to her being?_

 _This question remained in his mind, unanswered for an inordinate amount of time. And then suddenly he was the one who spent his time studying, observing the reactions of the two._

 _And what he found would change the way he saw her forever. He realized it when she looked at the two of them on the day of their mother's funeral:_

" _I'm so sorry, I know losing a mother must be the worst thing in the world."_

 _She had said it to the two of them, but her eyes were mainly for Reiji, who was, even for him, unnaturally silent and stoic. The coldness of his stance was not melted in the face of the compassion in her eyes, but for the first time Shuu could see why he found her so intriguing. At first he had thought she was a fool -and he was right- but then he realized what was so enrapturing about her foolishness._

 _He had glimpsed it when he saw Reiji watch her play with her brothers in the gardens from his window seat in the second floor library. The longing in his eyes. Because in that moment at the funeral, Chouko bared her soul in empathy for Reiji, not even knowing that he was the man who murdered his own mother._

 _And when Shuu watched Reiji look at her in that moment he knew why he had watched her, longed for her, had been so infatuated by her all this time: he envied her. He didn't understand her. She was the one person in the mansion so completely naive to the corruption around her. She had no idea of the monsters she lived with._

 _In the end, Shuu was right: Chouko was a fool. And so while they grew hardened and wizened, she retained her youth and innocence. She was a complete fool, but she was happy._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#4 - NUMBER FOUR**

* * *

He doesn't hear her go, he's too caught up with thoughts of the past. In his heart he knows that she's just a confused child and he shouldn't take her threats too seriously. But his mind tells him that her naiveté is precisely what makes her dangerous and that not only can he not stay out of it, but that if she tries to strike again imprisoning her in the cells won't work the next time.

 _Father won't put up with it again. His experiment is too important to allow a threat to persist._

He hopes to himself that it won't happen again. Because Shu knows that next time will certainly be the last time.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

She's sure about a lot of things, but this is one gray area that she hasn't had a lot of time to map out in her mind. At time like this it's better to just go with it and make it sound as natural and real as possible.

"Hello again," she says. She says it out of nowhere, but she knows it doesn't surprise him. They are vampires, after all, he could see her coming a mile away. She could guess that her presence wasn't as surprising as was the fact that he stayed to see her.

He doesn't respond, only looks at her with those solid, ruby red eyes holding back a storm. How long ago has it been since she looked into his eyes like this?

Ah, but they haven't spoken in years. _Years._ Even before she was in a coma they didn't speak. She remembers the last conversation they had, the look in his eyes now so familiar to the one years ago. Chouko looks around at the scenery. At the sea of white roses, almost luminescent in the brilliance of the moonlight. The maze of green bushes cradling the roses, stretching into oblivion. The looming tower overlooking it all. Everything around them is the same, as if they had gone back in time and pulled the scene from decades ago. But this time they are different, she knows, and her plan will only work if his feelings are the same.

"Subaru," she says softly. He always liked it when she spoke gently and somehow she was of the mind that if she treats him gently, he'll do the same. She needs the gentle giant in order to get the blood-thirsty beast: "Why haven't you come to see me?'

Chouko takes a few steps closer to him. _Careful now._

He says nothing, only stares at her with those beautiful red eyes.

"It hurt me when you didn't visit, Subaru-kun," she steps closer to him. "I wanted to see you." _I want to hurt you._

He stays still, to all the world a beautiful marble statue in the garden with flawless white skin, white hair, and a solid and gorgeous face. His ruby eyes fixed but his jaw gives him away, it clenches as if he's grinding his teeth. A very masculine jawline compared to his too-beautiful almost effeminate eyes, it's strong and sharp. She knows if he opened his mouth, it easily has the strength to rip her throat out.

 _Maybe you want to hurt me._

The purple-haired woman takes a few more steps closer and they stand eye to eye. She swallows and the column of her throat moves visibly. And their eyes cease their connection as he peruses the motion of her throat and she tells herself not to look at that _strong_ jaw that could tear her throat out. Tells herself that he won't hurt her.

 _I want to hurt you...so that you can never make me feel weak again…_

Because he's too strong and she's so weak in comparison and if he went for her jugular there would be _nothing_ she could do to stop him. And she resents that. Resents being at his mercy. Resents the thought that he could take all of her blood from her just like her brothers did so mercilessly to her mother and her plans of revenge would die with her. No justice. Just death.

 _I want to hurt you...but if I can't, then you will hurt for me._

"Subaru-onii-san," she whispers so innocently to him, because the giant adores the gentle. "Don't you want to be my friend anymore?"

* * *

 **#3 - NUMBER THREE**

" **Every Rose"**

 _Many years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Chouko didn't particularly like being the youngest. On the plus side it meant that she didn't have to do boring things like studying. But on the not-so bright side it meant that everyone knew more than her, or at least thought they knew more than her, so in some ways everybody looked down on her. They thought -even the triplets!- that just because they were one or two years older than her, that she didn't know anything. Anything at all! That she was just a foolish little child, worse, a foolish little girl! And that just wasn't true! ... well, most of the time it wasn't true._

 _Currently she was breathing heavy, lightly hiccuping between every panting breath, as she swung the long metal cane against the rosebushes. Tears streaking her face and white petals and various other plant remains flying, she didn't even notice the little boy next to her until he spoke:_

 _"What are you doing...?..!"_

 _And she dropped the weapon suddenly, jumping back with a short shriek. With her weapon on the garden ground, hair and dress a disaster, face a teary mess, hacking her way through bushes taller than herself like a maniac, she must have looked a sight. Apparently so, as he was just as surprised to see her as she was him._

 _And she had certainly never seen him before. There's no way she would have forgotten snowy white hair and such beautiful ruby eyes. There's no way._

 _But even though she struggled to place him, she would not succeed because at that point they had never met before. With his mother living in the tall tower and her schizophrenic state that kept him by her side at all times, he had never really left the tower before. Well, that was not entirely true. He_ _did leave, but only to take care of the roses that lay directly at the base of the structure. And clearly they were in some danger._

 _Steadying her breath, the girl looked upon the stranger with shaky, but not unsuspicious eyes:_

 _"Are you the gardener's son?"_

 _And he was taken aback for a moment. He had seen this girl before from his window view at the top of the tower. He had envied her even. Her freedom, her happiness. He wished he could be like her, she always looked so strong... So seeing her here, right before him, he almost couldn't believe his eyes, she reminded him of himself. Looking from a distance it had been hard to believe that they had anything in common. But seeing her vulnerable like this, he realized that they weren't completely worlds apart. And so he wanted to reassure her fears, but he couldn't tell her who he was. Then Mother would know he left the tower. She would be even more paranoid and worried and sick. He knew who she was, but she couldn't know his identity. So he simply said:_

 _"No, but I do take care of the roses."_

 _She blinked, remnants of a tear slid down her pale cheek. Aghast. "Oh...I'm so sorry..!" She looked regretfully at the portion of the pristine roses that she wrecked. "So sorry...I... They're really beautiful," her face was painfully contrite and completely sincere. "I wanted to get one for my mother, but-" her voice broke off in a whimper. "I-" She winced. And that's when he noticed the scent of blood in the air._

 _And then he took a look at her hands._

 _It took his breath away. Never in his young life had he seen so much blood, so much harm done by something so beautiful and innocent. Raw scratches deep in her soft skin, blood painting it all heavy crimson._

 _She must have used both hands and grabbed onto the vines to try and pull them out!_

 _"I d-didn't know that they had t-thorns-!" Her bottom lip trembled perilously and his mind went into hyperdrive._

 _Within a flash he had vanished carefully into the tower chambers and returned with the appropriate items. Bandage. Antiseptic. Tape. How many times had his mother accidentally hurt herself, have no blood in her body, and need patching up the human way?_

 _And so the motion was an experienced one as he wrapped the bandage carefully around each of her hands. Gently, too, it was vital that it all was done gently. With a mother like his...there was no other option unless he wanted her to reject his care and bleed out._

 _And then he was done and her pretty purple eyes were following him as he used the scissors to carefully shear one perfect white rose from the bush._

 _Then they were at that awkward stage where neither of them knew whether to start a conversation or turn to go. "Um, thank you very much, and again, sorry about the roses."_

 _"It's fine," he blushed, not really knowing what else to say to her. He had never talked to anyone but his mother and, on the very rare occasion, his father._

 _"Yeah, um," she stuttered. "I guess I'll see you around," she said finally, turning around to leave._

 _"Goodbye," Subaru whispered and as she walked away he wondered if he would ever look back on this event and wish that he had been more vocal about letting his first potential friend ever walk right out of his life._

 _He wouldn't know that the girl was thinking the same thing as she walked away. But then she stopped and spun around suddenly._

 _"Hey, what's your name?"_

 _And he was so surprised, all he could say was: "Subaru."_

 _"Subaru," she repeated, testing the vowels out. She had thought about this as she was walking away and decided that he was kind, gracious, cute, heroic, and agreeable. And there really was no other option to it:_

 _"Do you want to be my prince, Subaru?"_

 _ **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**_

 _In the end he decided that that was too embarrassing and they would just be friends, but she still liked to call him her "white knight" in her head in memory of the time he saved her from the malicious flowers._

 _From then on, after he learned her name, of course, they would meet in the rose garden and play. They were secret best friends, it had to be a secret, but that was fine. It only made it more fun, in fact._

 _But as with all good things, there must come an end. And so it came that Mother found out about their meetings and Chouko was no longer allowed to see Subaru. It wasn't enough that they didn't see each other anymore, Chouko had to tell him, in person, why she couldn't be friends with the likes of him._

 _"I don't understand," Subaru said, hurt and confusion all over his young face._

 _"I can't play with you anymore," Chouko repeated again, the words sounding worse the second time. But she had to force them out, her Mother decreed it._

 _"Why?"_

 _"Because Mother forbids it."_

 _"But **why**?" Subaru asked again, his voice more painful to listen to as he carried on._

 _"Because, you are not the heir," Chouko explained. "And your mother is a whore."_

 _Chouko didn't understand the word, but when she asked Mother what it meant, Cordelia simply said that that was the reason why they couldn't be friends. Six-year-old Chouko simply thought of it as a political or religious marker, having no idea of the bad connotations around it. It was simply another word that she didn't understand. Still, it's what Mother said, so she trusted that it was true._

 _(And she used it so liberally and openly, there was no way it had a bad meaning to it, right?)_

 _A tear rolled down young Subaru's pale cheek._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#3 - NUMBER THREE**

* * *

"I want us to be friends again, Subaru," Chouko says. "Wouldn't you like that?"

It's as this point that his silence makes her feel nervous, because even though he doesn't speak he also doesn't move a muscle. She has no idea what he's thinking, if he believes her, if he wants to hurt her. And so once again she's at his mercy and can therefore only hope that she pushes the right buttons in her next words. Because she knows looking into his eyes after all those years of never speaking that he must be lonely. He's the youngest of the brothers, the only one who didn't grow up with them, and didn't have a direct sibling relation. And with a mother like his? There's no way he isn't lonely, that he doesn't desire, in some form, a friend.

So she just has to phrase it correctly.

"Subaru, I know that these years have separated us," _lies, my mother did._ "But now that I'm back," _now that my mother's dead,_ "There's no reason why we can't start over again, as friends," Chouko says.

And she knows that she must have been convincing -she had threaded some truth in those words- because his face changes and his stance shifts ever-so-slightly. The lines of his brows and jaw lose their tension and relax. _Almost there._

"However, I regret to say that we can only be friends as long as my brothers are gone," and this was the tough part. "As long as my brothers are here it will never work. But if you help me get rid of them-"

"Get rid of them?"

"With your strength and my-"

"You mean kill them?"

"Then we can be fr-" Chouko quickly tries to salvage.

"Friends don't ask friends to murder for them," Subaru states, his face solid and unimpressed.

Chouko purses her lips, clearly seeing defeat in sight. _That's why you don't have any friends._

"And if they do, then I don't want to have friends," Subaru states plainly and she can clearly see that whatever ground she had made with him is now lost. "Goodbye, Chouko."

He vanishes into the night.

And with those two words he is condemning her to her lonesome. Whatever battle comes, she will have to fight alone; he will not be her white knight.

Chouko sighs.

 _That leaves me with Yui._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **A/N: This chapter is longer (2k words) than usual so I hope it was worth the wait. Tell me what you guys think for a preview of the next chapter~!**


	11. Chapter 9 & a half

**№➈** **.➄|❝In the Details❞**

 **FLASHBACK**

 _Somewhere between_ **#7 To Be a Lady** _and_ **#9 Last** …

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _He did not understand how exactly it happened, but one moment the coy, excited glances and casual words turned to something not so innocent. Suddenly he did not just love his sister and want her attention. Laito Sakamaki was_ _ **in love**_ _with his sister and wanted her everything._

 _The shift was strange and yet something about it was so natural, almost inevitable...like_ _ **they were meant to be.**_

 _True thirteen year old Laito was a bit of a romantic, but when he really thought about it, there was not anything strange about it at all: vampire families, especially the royal ones, intermarried all the time to keep the bloodlines pure and their power in the family. And they were full-blooded siblings produced from two of the most illustrious royal lines: that of the Demon King on their mother's side and the Vampire King on their father's. They were also both the youngest in their respective groups: he the youngest triplet and she the youngest and only daughter of Cordelia. And with Ayato's position as the eldest and therefore heir of their little family, they were the youngest, most easily overlooked. It only made sense that they related most to each other._

 _There was no reason why they should not be together._

 _No reason why they should not be_ _happy_ _together._

 _Because in the Sakamaki household, happiness was hard to find, so once you do you must be sure to snap it up...before someone else snatches it from your fingertips._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _Deep, purple eyes flashed across the table to catch a green pair, and when they clashed for a second they were the only ones in the room._

 _When did his heart start beating so fast?_

 _Laito looked at Chouko, absolutely transfixed by the way she seemed to glow in the dullness of the room, looking deeply into her eyes as if he could somehow spot the trick of it… only falling further under her spell…_

 _But with a shy chuckle and eyes quickly averting elsewhere, the purple eyes disengaged and the spell was broken... and the rest of the room came back into focus._

 _And in the precious little world of that precious moment, it must have seemed that they were alone, safe to unveil their feelings. But truly, the exchange was like a delicate diorama on display to the displeased eyes of a third green pair. This little scene a ticking time bomb ready to explode._

 _There was something..._ _ **disgusting**_ _about watching the two of them._

 _At the head of the dining table -yes, because_ _ **she**_ _was the rightful queen and first wife!- Cordelia once again was embittered looking at her children. A sourness in her mouth tasting of old memories. Because there the little girl was with her purple hair and silly dress smiling so happily and foolishly. And just across from her sat a young man, gaze promising that she was the most important person in the world. But through her green, envious eyes the girl had long purple waves, was younger, completely innocent. And the boy was just a bit older, his long hair even longer,_ _ **silver**_ _even. And though the girl hated these things, the stiff old dinner parties her hateful mother forced to endure, it was okay and she was smiling secretly in defiance of her mother, because she had this important, beautiful boy in front of her. And as they flirted across the table the world seemed to disappear and she could place them together at the center of the universe. This was okay because he was here._ _ **Karl**_ …

 _And with just the symmetry of Laito's face and the purple of Chouko's hair Cordelia painted for herself a portrait of the past. And it was_ _ **rotten**_ _! And gnarled and grotesque and_ _defiled_ _! Because they were so happy from her view and even though now she sat at the head of the table there was no silver-haired man sitting just across to whisper and tease her worries away with his wicked eyes. And he wouldn't be there for her tonight, and probably not even for a hundred nights. Though they had so foolishly spoken the words "forever" when they were young and happy, Cordelia could not have pondered then or even now the absolute and unflinching bottomless depth of forever. And though she was immortal, surely her love was not made to stretch and keep across many years of loneliness without giving. So how could he expect her to wait for him?_

 _Her beautiful green eyes became emeralds with the flawless glaze of her unshed tears. But they would not fall...because somewhere in that stinging quality Cordelia saw clarity for perhaps the first time._

 _The girl was not Cordelia and the boy not Karlheinz and they would never be it and they could never again return to that careless time. But the way the girl smiled at the boy had Cordelia believing...there was no point in waiting for Karl any longer, he would never return to her, and so she resolved that she would be the death of him. Their time was done. But that didn't mean the death of her. She could paint herself just as easily into that portrait and be just as happy without Karl. She wouldn't have him, of course, but she had the next best thing._

 _Laito blushed from the attentions of the little girl._

 _The mother's tears evaporated and polished gemstones became raw and rough and sharp once more._

 _So Chouko flashed a little smile at Laito when she thought no one was looking and he smiled again. And Cordelia had a secret smile of her own and it smiled right with them._

 _And the portrait was redrawn in her image._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

" _It's time, Chouko," the mother said._

" _What?" The girl asked laugh still present in her voice, unfocused, still coming down from a high._

" _Time to let Laito and Kanato go."_

" _What-?" The girl exclaimed, mood sobered all of a sudden._

" _You've practiced and now you've matured. You're ready to begin helping Ayato," the mother said seriously._

" _Like...be his girlfriend?"_

" _Like making sure he is on the path to success," Cordelia said eyes narrowed. There would be no insolence, no room for argument. "He is the heir, he will be King of all Vampires and as the only daughter of our line you will be his Queen!"_

" _But, Mother…" the girl struggled. "I'm not sure I want that anymore. It's such a big decision, to make such a commitment so early...and forever is such a long time-"_

 _But those were the words that decided it: "It's not about what_ _you_ _want, it's about what's best for this_ _ **family**_ _," and Cordelia's voice was completely cold and unfeeling. She had heard, said those words before and she didn't like hearing them again. "Do you remember what I told you when we first spoke of this?"_

" _That it is really important that I carry out my duties as daughter-" Chouko recited robotically._

" _Why?" Cordelia spat, eyes and brilliant as diamonds._

" _Because," the girl took in a sharp breath. "Because if I don't keep Ayato on his path and he doesn't become heir, then he will be k-killed-" her voice broke. "Just like everyone else, so that there will be no other person next-in-line," Chouko sniffled, covering her trembling face with both hands with the shame and utter guilt that she had dared to be so selfish._

" _And that means your other brothers: Kanato and Laito and perhaps even me for my position as the current Queen!"_

" _Oh Mother-!" Chouko rushed at her mother's body and threw her arms around her, bearing her teary face into their embrace. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking!"_

" _No, you weren't," the mother admonished, words so much softer than her eyes. "But it's alright, as long as you understand how important this is?"_

" _I do understand, Mother! I do!" The girl cried into her mother's collarbone._

 _The woman grabbed the girl by the shoulders and guided them apart so that she could look at her teary face. There was some satisfaction to be found, after all, in the tears of a fool._

" _Then you will listen to me. You cannot play around with your brothers' feelings any longer. It is time that you make your decision and that decision is Ayato," the mother looked earnestly into her daughter's eyes. A fool could easily misunderstand things._

" _I understand," the tears were drying on the younger female's face. "But Mother, what will happen to Laito?"_

 _After all, their flirtation was at its center a learning experience for the both of them. Cordelia had been separately teaching them the art of romance and love and putting them together meant that they could bounce off of each other and really practice. And if she wasn't to be his partner anymore…_

" _Hmm, oh Laito?" There was minutely a quizzical air to her facial queues that upon closer inspection were completely practiced. "He'll be alright," she smiled most assuredly._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

" _I thought it was working!" Distress wrinkled the lines of his face, sobs wracking his body. "I did everything you said and she-" his voice broke, "and she-!"_

" _I know, I thought it was working as well," Cordelia said, her hand gently smoothing his back, her face the picture of contrition._

" _I thought she loved me-!" Laito cried naively. "I thought- so how could she-?"_

" _I know, I know, I did too. But perhaps it simply wasn't meant to be," Cordelia spoke softly, voice filled with measured compassion._

 _He could not understand the depth of what he had lost -for his mission had originally started as a way to spend more time with his sister- all he knew was that it was happy and beautiful and_ _ **real**_ _._

" _It's not fair ~!" His voice broke, sobs shaking him to his core, face crumbling._

" _It isn't...but," Cordelia grabbed her son's face gently in her hands and grasped so that his only choice was to focus those watery green eyes on her alone. For a moment she was in awe at the raw results of her creation. "Listen to me," unknown to him it was nothing short of a command. "No matter what happens in the future, remember this: your Mother will always love you."_

 _Laito blinked and the tears only magnified the image that he was lost in a sea of heartache and desperately looking for an anchor. "I love you too…"_

 _And he wasn't really looking at her like she wanted, but that was okay because she had already gotten the words she needed to hear. She would now be his anchor._

 _And so in the closed doors of Cordelia's personal suite was the privacy for a young Laito to cry his heart out and enough of an opening left exposed for Cordelia to crawl right in. She wouldn't wait for Karlheinz. She wouldn't let her daughter be happier than her. She would_ _never_ _be replaced again. Instead_ _ **she**_ _would be the one doing the replacing. Karl could have his toys for she had gotten her own. And though this one looked a bit like him he was much more innocent, and he was_ _ **all hers to break.**_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**


	12. Chapter 10

A/N: The process for editing chapters on this site is horrendous! I've accepted by this time that there will always be an editing/formatting issue when I upload but this one really hit me like a dark horse. After struggling through that issue, I remembered that there was a mistake somewhere in this chapter. but I forgot where it is. You guys will probably notice it though, hopefully it doesn't jump out so hard.

I got a review last chapter that brought up point that is very relevant and you guys might want to read my response as well. If not, look for the butterfly that starts the chapter. Clarissa fray this is to you:

 _I'm happy to hear your input and I think I understand where you're coming from; you believe that Yui's role in the story is integral and that there's no way that she could be overlooked so easily. This would be absolutely true had I not introduced a huge variable into the standard Diabolik Lovers equation: Chouko. The idea in this story is that Chouko is their sister, having her introduced severely changes the dynamic of the story that we have all come to know: there's a reason why the Sakamaki characters were all boys and Yui was the only girl. Because of Chouko the story is not the same as it would have been. While the main Diabolik Lovers story is centered around Yui (it is an otome game after all), this story is a fanfic and is centered around my OC, Chouko. Because of this the dynamic shifts from a more reverse-harem style featuring Yui to an alternate family-angst/drama style backstory and premise. What I'm basically trying to say is that with the introduction of this new character Chouko, in my story, Yui is no longer the protagonist, even if she still is a heroine in her own right._

 _The extent of the "thing" that they have for Yui is somewhat debatable as the anime leaves this question a bit ambiguous (except for Ayato) and rather focuses on why she's a "different" bride as opposed to whether they really see her as anything special or have romantic feelings for her. The games are obviously different, but depending on who you are and what route you take the "thing" changes, so I'm really not focused on that. I will say I agree that I did leave out some feelings of "jealousy" (which I correct in this chapter) as they are only natural, for Yui and for Chouko. Chouko because she clearly feels a disconnect from her brothers while in this case Yui is much closer to them and Yui because...well, Chouko is prettier? (Jk lol) And they seem to have some respect/care for her even though she's clearly unhinged? I hope you can see where I'm coming from; that Yui is no longer the main character and therefore focus of the story due to Chouko's appearance (though Yui is still important). Thank you for your words!_

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **№➓|❝Dark Horse❞**

 _"Do you know how it feels to love someone so much that you hate them?"_

The roof of Ryoutei Academy is serene at night with the small pockets of light in the distance and the smooth breeze toying with his hair. But he can not enjoy it. When was the last time he truly enjoyed a night like this?

In the past he never knew what he wanted, yet things always seemed to fall into place around him. And even now, with everything that's happened he still doesn't know what he wants... But now everything's chaos around him. And at the center of that chaos, he had come to realize, was her. Always her.

 **Cordelia.**

He had wondered if she was gone if everything would then fall into place?

He remembered that night, looking into her eyes, the things she said...

He remembered the question that he had wanted to ask.

 _"Do you love me more than anyone else?"_

And he could picture the way she'd smile, her eyes would glow as she said: _"Yes. Laito, I love you. I mean that."_ And she'd hold her hand out to him. And he'd imagine that she really did mean it and that her "love" would be enough... But it wasn't enough and it never could be enough because in her black heart she wished she was with someone else that he could never fill the void of, and wherever his heart was he surely felt the same.

He knows who her someone is...who else could it be but the King of the Vampires? But _his_ someone, that mysterious, ambiguous _someone_... she had purple hair to be sure and sometimes her eyes were green... Other times they flickered to a purple from his past, from a future that could never be.

How different would it have been if he could have followed his heart to the fullest? How different would he have been, had his heart not been broken before it could ever really know love?

So, sometimes the woman of his dreams has green eyes. But sometimes they're purple and he wonders about the love that never was and wishes he could go back to a time before he was utterly broken, when there was still hope in his eyes. When he was a child who had nothing better to do than chase bats; who didn't even really care that his mother never noticed him because he got to play. He wasn't happy then: happiness at that time didn't even have a name. But he had had all the capacity to be happy. And now...

Now when he dreams twisted dreams and the woman whose face he sees has green eyes: he curses them. Because they destroyed the child who might have become happy and twisted another into the fantasy that her chains were happiness. Two children never to grow up. One who had been blinded from the horrors of the world, the other completely aware. Both a crutch that enabled them to be used.

He would never know if what he felt for that mysterious purple-eyed girl was love, all he knew was that when it broke his heart he never recovered. Cordelia hadn't wanted him to recover. She liked him broken; she could use it to her advantage. She could manipulate his pain to make him more pliable to her own needs and so the cycle of pain and torture began.

* * *

 **#10 - NUMBER TEN**

 **"What I Want"**

 _Some years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _He stood with his back to her at the window, eyes looking out at the night. How he wished he could disappear into that darkness..._

 _"We're finished."_

 _She was lying on her back, sprawled beneath the covers without a care in the world. This was one of those moments when they were done their "activities" and she was steadily sobering to the fact that she didn't actually like him beyond his "uses"._

 _Vague irritation and no humor present within her: "What are you talking about now, Laito?"_

 _"I don't want to be with you anymore," he wouldn't look at her. If he did, then he would rage against the greedy monster who robbed him of his innocence and happiness. His rage would provoke her spite and then her vindictiveness would swear to never let him go. As long as he remained calm, so would she. After all, she didn't like boring men. "It's over. I'm done."_

 _There was a laugh in her voice, choked from fullness by something bitter and insecure. "I taught you everything about this, I'm your mother. You're done with me? Very funny. The only way you can be done with me, is for me to say I'm done with you."_

 _But that was all okay, as long as she stayed lying down, kept her voice quiet, then he hadn't triggered her and he could escape from this._

 _"Nevertheless, we're done."_

 _"Oh yeah?" she laughed at him. He could imagine the look in her eyes. "And what're you gonna do after this? Find someone else?"_

 _His eye twitched. **Don't turn around**. She meant it to be insulting and that irritated him. But what irritated him more was that somewhere inside it angered him. He was seething that she thought that he could never find anyone else, that no one could replace her. And so something began simmering inside of him. He gritted his teeth:_

 _"That's what you do, so that's exactly what I'll do. After all; you taught me everything," and he was furious and as much as he tried to conceal it, some of his fury undoubtedly leaked out. "But that time is over: I don't need you anymore and I can do better."_

 _He could hear her sitting up and knew then that he made a mistake._

 _"And you think that you could find someone better than me?!"_

 _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid._  
 _"I already have," because now that he had said it he wouldn't back down. She wouldn't let him. It was always this way._

 _"What...?" she was on her feet, he could see in the reflection of the window. But he wouldn't appease her by turning around. She didn't deserve his attention. " Who! Who could possibly be better than me?!"_

 _Besides, he felt like taking her down, he smiled to himself. Why shouldn't he have the victory he deserved?_

 _It was laughable:_

 _Who could be better than you, Cordelia?_

 _"Depends who you ask," he replied smoothly. "If you're asking your husband, then: Beatrix, Christa, and every other woman he slept with while married to you," he paused. "But if you're asking me; then... any other person in the world."_

 _She dug her claws into his shoulders and forced him around. And he let her, it was time to show her that this was no act, he wasn't hiding or cowering, he was serious and he was done with her. So he made sure she saw his face, solid and immovable. She would have no control over him anymore._

 _And he saw hers, and it truly did feel like victory. Finally, finally he had upset her, gotten her to feel insecure, manipulated her cool, self-assured arrogance with mere words. She was losing her composure and he had done that to her!_

 _"You **fucking liar**!" she hissed, baring her sharp fangs so close to his throat, looking up at him with equally sharp eyes. "I'm second to none! I'm the woman he loves the best and I'm certainly the best you've ever had!"_

 _"And there's where you're wrong," he looked into her green eyes and promised not to be affected. "He doesn't love you and neither do I. It took me a while to realize it, but I never have…" and he watched her face fall and he reveled in it. And he added: "And you've always been second in my mind, if that."_

 _"To who!" Her nails dug in even harder._

 _"That's none of your concern," he wouldn't budge for her again._

 _"I want a name, Laito!" She grabbed him by the neck. "Lisbeth? Kayla? That blonde human you were with last week?!"_

 _His face was blank. It was just like her to fixate._

 _"Aria, Daniella, Sakura? Mirai, Chouko, Fan-?"_

 _He gave no response, but she must have seen something, in his silence, in his eyes. Somewhere was weak and she fixated on it._

 _"Chouko...? Chouko! That little slut!"_

 _"She is not-" and as much as he hated Cordelia and didn't want to give her any ammunition, he wouldn't let her slander his sister._

 _"You think she's better than me?" her claws viciously drew blood from his throat. "That insignificant, watered down, pathetic copy of myself! You think she is better than me?!"_

 _"She is."_

 _"You think she's more beautiful than me?!"_

 _"She is, inside and out."_

 _" **No!** I won't stand for it! You will not leave me for my daughter!"_

 _"The fact is that I am," a lie: he wasn't leaving Cordelia for Chouko. Rather, he was leaving Cordelia because he was inspired by Chouko. But it felt good to hurt Cordelia, even in a minor way. "Whether or not I'll actually be with her. You won't control me anymore."_

 _But there was some truth deep down: Laito was not in love with Chouko anymore, but he certainly cared about her and she was certainly better than Cordelia._

 _"Is that so?" she retracted her claws and stepped away, to his confusion. "Well then, I hate to ruin your happy plans, but I must inform you that you'll never be seeing her again."_

 _"...what?"_

 _"Well, not entirely true. You will see her again, but whether or not that's a happy reunion, is another thing, and certainly you won't be seeing much of her after I'm through."_

 _"Don't you dare think about hurting her," even more than you do so implicitly. That was one thing he wouldn't tolerate._

 _"Oh no! I won't be hurting her, I'll be hurting you! I mean what I say: you won't be seeing her around often."_

 _He hated that self-assured look glimmering in her cruel eyes._

 _"If you think you can keep us apart-"_

 _"But I won't be keeping you apart, she will. And after I'm done talking to her, she won't ever want to see you again."_

 _"You may be a good liar, but there's a limit to how much even you can make up."_

 _"Well, I won't have to make up much; you've inspired me! I'll stick to the truth, I'll tell her about how you defiled me. I'll tell her that you took our 'lessons' and twisted them, and developed a sick obsession for me. How you defiled me against my will, knowing how much I love my husband, how vulnerable I was as a mother, how I loved you so much I couldn't bear the thought of exposing you. How much of a failure that I felt as a mother that I was helpless to help you, and could only slightly atone for my failures by warning my darling daughter away from the perverse desires of her fallen brother. I think you'll find that the best of lies are woven loosely around truths."_

 _"No." He shook his head: "She knows me. She wouldn't believe that."_

 _"Maybe not from someone else, but from me? It's the word of her troublemaking brother, against her dear-beloved mother."_

 _And he knew that despite the circumstances and how much he wished they weren't so, that she was right._

 _And she knew it._

 _She smiled. "So you see, you won't be leaving me. You'll be staying right here, adhering to my every command, desperately hoping to please me so that I won't expose your vulgar little secret. You'll do everything I say and never leave me-"_

 _And she put her lips to his ear, fangs brushing with every word:_

 _"And if you really please me, perhaps I might even consider thinking about forgiving you. But first: **punishment**."_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#10 - NUMBER TEN**

* * *

For a long time he convinced himself that he felt nothing, tried not to acknowledge that where his heart broke still hurt. Tried to distract himself with trivial pursuits. _Other_ activities. Convinced himself that the pain was a part of him... And then he looks into her purple eyes and remembers his lost childhood and how carefree he used to be. That his heart didn't always hurt this way... And he remembers her too: carefree and innocent. And to think, once upon a time she might have been his…

" _Do you know how it feels to love someone so much that you hate them?"_

And he hates her too. Hates that his purity is _taken_ , his childhood robbed, his heart **broken** and she's there just like before, still happy, still smiling like the fool she is, worse, with Ayato, as ignorant as a person could possibly be! And he hates that he was so played by Cordelia, his life ruined by Cordelia and Chouko's should be too, but in the same stroke he's miserable and she's _just fine_. Ignorance is bliss. And though he hates that, hates it so much he wants to **SCREAM!** But her kind eyes, her soft gaze towards him steals all his words away...he loves her innocence. How could he ruin her happiness just to make himself feel a little bit better?

So he says nothing. He suffers. It's okay. She suffers too, she just doesn't know it. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. It's okay. Cordelia wins and cheats them both out of a full, happy life.

 _It's all okay._

So that night, for a moment, he thought about asking Cordelia if she loved him more than anyone else.

But then he realized it would be useless. She didn't love him. And he didn't even know what love was, so he didn't love her. And she'd just lie anyway.

For a second, purple eyes flashed in his mind and he knew that he'd want to hear her answer. For some reason...

And he asked a question he never should have asked:

 _"Do you love Ayato **(1)**?"_

And that took her off guard. He was surprised too, for he was normally so in control...

 _"Never. My love belongs to my husband, the Vampire King Karlheinz, alone."_

He didn't know why he asked. He didn't know. One could guess that was ultimately his problem: he never did really know what he wanted.

He had been so confused all that time, there had been such a chaos around him: _do I actually love Cordelia? Or is what we have only physical? So why do I do it? Do I love Chouko? Does it even matter? Should I tell her about everything? Would she love me then? Does it even matter? Would that only make everything worse?... **What is love?**_

It was all chaos. After all that time he was no closer to knowing what he wanted and what love actually was.

 **WHAT DO I WANT?!**

 **...**

And when he took a moment...he was in the eye of the hurricane, all the chaos around him. The wind cleared above his head and there was peace, there was focus...and suddenly he thought:

 _If she's gone won't everything fall into place?_

And then Cordelia was diving off the balcony.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

This is a sickness, that she knows. A fixation, to be truthful. Because although she's been staring at the white ceiling for the past 4 hours, the more important part is _where_ she's viewing it from. A random couch it would seem to anyone, but to her it's the place where Shu had tried to deceive her so many years ago into believing that everything was fine and her mother wasn't about to be murdered. Thus, the _fixation_.

She can shift her gaze just a bit and see the front doors of the mansion, herself walking through them, carefree, holding the gown her mother was supposed to wear to the ball. **The ball that neither of them made it to.** She can see her own confusion when the butler doesn't grab her coat, the strange aura of the house. She sees herself walk up to Shu and hears him **lie to her face** , not in words but in intent. And he is a conspirator too and an accessory to the crime is equally guilty.

What she cannot see, however, is his point of view and his thinking. She cannot imagine why he remained in the house, there especially. In the past she had thought that he was there to avoid the drama of everything else, her mother's killing, but now that she revisits the case: why wouldn't he just leave the house? He's done it often, on lesser impulses, so why would he stay knowing what was going to happen?

She refuses to believe that he lied there in wait to warn her, so that her feelings could be somewhat spared and the blow softened.

That was too troublesome for a lazy sloth like him, too idiotic as nothing could take the punch out of her mother's death.

So she lies on this couch in the entrance hall, nothing else to do, and stews in the questions of the past. And a few tears slip from the safety of her eyes. It still hurts because no matter where she goes: she can still see it happening before her eyes. The pain has never left her bones. It still hurts. And she knows that no matter what she becomes it will _always_ hurt if she does nothing. Because no one else will do anything, not her father or uncle who "loved" her or anyone else, if not her. If she does nothing there will be no justice for the fallen and the helpless and the innocent. For her mother.

 _That's why **they** must die._

And as much as she hadn't wanted to admit it, justice is not a pure principle. It's tainted, diluted, infected with her own weakness. Because despite what she portrays she will never be able to escape the guilt and free her conscience once she kills her brothers. The victory will be bittersweet because the justice is frail. It's a bloody course to be sure, but it's what she must do. It hurts her heart, because deep down inside she still loves her brothers, but justice must be served in the name of the innocent lost.

And so, she had endeavored to kill Ayato the night of her awakening, quickly so there wasn't enough time for her feelings to obstruct her. All the same, she still cares about them. But she cares about her mother more. She doesn't want to hurt them, but she is so betrayed; her mother didn't deserve death.

Justice hurts. And she's all alone.

That's why her tears have not exhausted.

That's why she's stared at the ceiling for 4 hours while the brothers are away at school.

* * *

 **#11 - NUMBER ELEVEN**

 **"The Big Break"**

 _Some years ago…_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _With one sentence, everything changed and events were set into motion with unforeseen consequences. **She** said something to him one night that he just couldn't **STAND**._

 _She didn't specifically like torturing her lovers, but she did enjoy torturing her sons._

 _He was both, unfortunately._

 _She stroked his hair as they breathed tiredly next to each other in the bed, a satisfied gleam in her eyes as she uttered the hateful words; "You're so obedient~ Too bad you weren't born the heir and I would've given you Chouko as a reward."_

 _She smiled at him and he wasn't sure if it was patronizing._

 _Laito was too distracted because his world had stopped spinning._

 _But Cordelia just went on talking; "But then, it wouldn't be fair, I suppose, as Ayato has truly earned his **prize**. It's made him much more compliant and dutiful." And when he gathered his wits enough to look her in the eyes without seeing red, he recognized that her smile was truly patronizing. She had aimed to hurt him; she knew he'd cared Chouko._

 _It didn't matter what he thought of love, what name was put to his feelings:_

 _She knew it made his heart burn with envy, sting and fester with bitterness. She said it, not because she cared, but because she could._

 _And Chouko certainly didn't care, the oblivious brat, she didn't even **KNOW**. She would never know that in his own way he loved her, never know about the sleepless nights he spent thinking about her sleeping in **his** arms. Or worse, the sleepless nights when he was so lonely and broken the only thing he could do to stave the pain was to sleep in **her** arms. Cordelia's._

 _Chouko would never know and he could never tell her because of Ayato and Cordelia. Because he wasn't born their mother's precious and "obedient" heir. Because he was not the favored child of Cordelia, the dominatrix and the broker of Chouko's attention and affections._

 _Chouko would never be his to love._

 _(-What is love?-)_

 _Because he was not Ayato._

 _And why should Ayato deserve Chouko? Because of some pathetic excuse that he's obedient?!_

 _Ayato does even **less** studying with Chouko around, the only reason he wasn't flunking out of school is because he pushes off all his work on the brides to spend time with Chouko! In fact, they weren't even here in the mansion right now and Ayato was supposed to be studying for that big-_

 _Laito paused at that line of thought. Being with Chouko only made Ayato less obedient. Especially as he was always trying to impress her._

 _Suddenly, a bitter, jealousy-infused idea crossed his mind and he turned to his volatile lover with a patronizing smile of his own._

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _"What do you mean we can't be together anymore?!"_

 _"It's over between us-" Chouko said, eyes steady and calm._

 _"Says who?!" Ayato raged._

 _"Says me-!" Chouko was beginning to be offended at his disbelief._

 _"I don't believe that! Everything was fine earlier this evening and now you say you want to break up, what the hell has gotten into to you?!" Ayato shouted at her and it was beginning to wear on her emotions and patience._

 _"Look," she resolved to straighten him out. "Mother just said that she doesn't think our relationship is going anywhere," she watched his eyes widen and quickly interjected an explanation: "and she's right! Are we going to get married when we grow up, Ayato? You're the heir to the throne, you'll have your own bride chosen for you, maybe even one of the sacrificial brides; I'm just a distraction to you." Chouko looked off to the side and spoke a little softer: "Maybe it's better that we break up now-"_

 _" **That woman** told you this?" But he was unconvinced, and suddenly he was very serious._

 _Chouko was surprised. "She didn't tell me what to do but-"_

 _"But she suggested that it was time for our relationship to end?" Ayato held firmly._

 _"Well...yes...but it wasn't all her, it was my decision and I think in the end we'll look back on this and say that it was for the best…" Chouko explained, stopping to look at him gently: "Are you angry?"_

 _Ayato thought about it for a minute and something within him willed himself to force the rage down. Somehow he said: "No-"_

 _"Are you sure?" Chouko looked at him dubiously._

 _"I'm fine," his voice was quiet, his eyes shadowed. "If that's how it has to be then I'll accept that decision."_

 _A beautiful smile bloomed on his sister's face: "Thanks, Onii-san!"_

 _She kissed him on the cheek and exited the room, but he barely noticed._

 _One teenage boy hung around in the hallway near the room, cursing himself for being so invisible to her that she hadn't even noticed him when they passed each other. Chouko would never notice him._

 _You'll always be invisible with **her** around~_

 _Another boy with a fedora heard the whole scene through the floor and felt some relief, but sighed when he acknowledged that it wouldn't change anything concerning his stance in the scheme of things. Chouko would never be with him._

 _(-Do you even want her to?-)_

 _The third boy stared at the ground where she had been and felt overwhelming rage start to take him over. She said that it was her decision, but he knew that really it was Cordelia manipulating things behind the scenes. And because it was her, he knew she would be the reason why he and Chouko would never be together again._

 _Finally the third triplet was starting to see what the other two had known all along; that Cordelia had to **go**._

 _Two weeks later would find the mother of four falling off a balcony to her death._

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _End._

 **#11 - NUMBER ELEVEN**

* * *

It was always difficult decisions, Chouko realizes, staring at the white ceiling above.

She loves them. Even **him**. She knows his motive for killing their mother was, in part, because of the break up. It's no excuse, he knows that.

She hates what he did, but she still loves him. She still loves _them_ , she corrects, but she hates what they did. And now, she hates what that means _she_ has to do.

 _They must die. The road to justice, the plight of an avenger, is never easy._

And in her heart which shelters all of this confliction and pain, there's one thing she knows above all else: after her job is done, with everyone dead, there is no life for her.

Then the justice will be complete.

So there's two reasons to be crying on the couch.

Another tear slips from

her eyes and she feels the sting. The white bubbles and quakes and blurs. And it all goes to black as she shuts her eyes on the pain. Two more tears streak her face. She breathes in through her nose.

A current of cold air strokes her cheek. Musk and something saccharine drifts into her nose and she wonders if she's getting sentimental hallucinations as well. Chouko opens her eyes.

There her brother stands with the blonde human in his arms. The entrance doors lay open.

Like a faucet she turns the tears off and they stop in their tracks. Chouko sits up on the couch and locks eyes with him. **Ayato**. A whole history passes between their gazes, but no communication. It's like they're looking at images of each other, each imagining that the other image is unreachable through words. Fixed and distant.

But this time, the fire of her eyes has dimmed, now only embers, cooled by the tears on her cheeks. And he is just the same: time having softened his anger, but not his memory.

They will never forget the things they did to each other.

"What happened to her?" she asks.

Ayato looks at the human as if remembering that she is in his arms. "She fainted." He says simply and looks back into her eyes again.

"Oh?" her face is blank and the interrogative tone of her voice falls flat, but he understands that she is asking a question.

The glacial wind puts shivers into the unconscious mortal, but the two vampires notice nothing. Not the way the doors are still open, not that he stands in the middle of the room like a statue, not anything but each other. Finally they reach a point where there is no hostility, now there is only the ghosts of familiarity.

"She said she was in a lot of pain," he answers her.

"She wouldn't be the first," she replies.

And though he doesn't immediately identify the echo of it in her voice, he recognizes the sadness painting tear-tracks onto her cheeks, and his brows furrow in concern. He steps forward:

"Chouko-"

"Don't." Because while he sees her clearly, the only thing she can see is the concern in his eyes, the way he so uncharacteristically carried the human back, cradling her in his arms so carefully.

And it is like _she_ is looking back in time remembering the way he used to hold her so gently. But now she's replaced, in his heart and in this house. She can tell herself that she doesn't care, but the words in her mind are weak against the bitter sting resonating in her heart.

And she certainly has no desire to stay there and watch herself being supplanted, so she retreats back to her mother's room. She no longer wishes to room with Yui.

It's weak and cowardly to hide from her problems, but she concedes. _Some battles must be lost to win the war for justice. That is how I shall conserve my energy for the battles that matter._

In the end, though she can retreat from this, nothing can erase the truth: she cares for Ayato. She is jealous of Yui.

But there is always a remedy. The cure for loneliness? Love. The cure for arrogance? Tribulation. For jealousy? **Death.**

And so Chouko comforts herself with the ideas of her plans. Use Yui as a tool to kill her brothers, and if the fragile mortal dies along the way? Good. Otherwise she will get Yui to destroy the brothers and then kill her afterwards. Or perhaps...leave her alive to be traumatized and tormented with the guilt and memory of what she has done? Either way, Yui Komori will not get out of this one unscathed.

After all, what right did any of them, even Yui, have to be happy, anyway?

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

"Ugh-!" Whimpers and stifled cries come from a room down the hall in the Sakamaki mansion.

The door seals away the sobs and tears of the petite human girl as she cries beneath the safety of her pink duvet.

"It hurts-!" comes the broken whisper of the blonde. "It hu-urts~!" she barely chokes out through her shattering voice box. But then she sharply bites down on her pillow as a scream rips through her throat. She can't let the brothers hear her and want to come down to her room and view the scene sadistically.

"Ah!" she yelps, tears clouding her eyes, and she begins clawing at her chest as if to rip something out.

The next wave of pain has her biting her tongue to quell the shriek.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 **(1)** So I read somewhere that the night Cordelia died, in the anime Laito asked her: "Do you love me more than anyone else?" And we all know how she replied. BUT in the games supposedly he asked her: "Do you love Ayato?" Interesting, huh?

A/N: So that was the last flashback of the story! What do you guys think about where things are going? About the characters?


	13. Chapter 11

A/N: So I'm not sure if most of you know this, but I draw chapter covers for each chapter of this story, and though Fanfiction does not let me add pictures I certainly add them into my Wattpad and Quotev versions. If you want to see them they are under this story there, same title, same username.

Sorry that this is late but you know what they say: better late than never! Enjoy!

 **№➀➀|❝Wool Eyes❞**

The wind is like ice and when she breathes out an Arctic cloud unfolds before her. But in her thin nightgown she does not freeze and neither does the lake. Like the ripples in her gown the surface of the lake stirs in waves, the cold forgotten.

 _What is the cold to a vampire?_

And so she looks out at the night sky, sees the chill through her breath and recalls her tiff in the dungeons below the house. It was weeks ago and yet it might as well be a lifetime. Because when she feels the wind and does not freeze, in body she is the same person from those dungeons. But everything else is different.

She remembers yelling at her brothers, screaming with the hope in her heart that somehow it would bring her mother back. Now Chouko looks at the lake on the grounds of the Sakamaki estate and wishes they could all just drown.

 _What is life to a vampire?_

She had lived countless days and yet she struggles to recall one day to make the rest of the pain worth bearing. Whatever happiness there once was has been swallowed up by a sea of despair. The past will always drown the future. Death could not come soon enough, for just as the waves shift perpetually, so does her heart never calm.

For a time, her life had been frozen, her pain delayed; she had been in a coma. But just as a lake never stays frozen, just as the future cannot survive the past, just as a vampire cannot outrun the ticking of time: the despair inevitably came rolling back. Not enough to drown them all, but enough to drown any future that might have been worth having.

 _To think, in another world, by this time I might have been married and happy._

She breathes out again. The waves are black under the night sky and she would be lying if she said that for a second she didn't consider walking off the dock and drowning; slip into the waves for a swim and never come up for air. But who would notice? Who would care? What would that achieve? Despair would win again and she would only be another naive woman, like her mother, who had bet against the brothers and lost.

A vision, of her brother being pushed into this very same lake flashes across her mind's eye. She sees his hand break the surface of the water, reaching out for whomever will help him. In one vision, she does; she reaches to grab his hand and her mother pushes her into the water with him as punishment. They both drown and with them so does their dark future. In another, Mother realizes her mistake, and pulls him out averting her own dark future. _They would have been fine_. But the reality is that nobody reaches out to save him. Not her, who was compelled to stand still and watch in terror the punishment of those who disobey her mother. Not Cordelia, who watches with apparent amusement for a second before she turns to her lover.

"How beautiful you are," he says to Chouko. "All grown up now…"

And she tilts her head from the lake just so slightly to see him stand before her. Same green hair, same long black attire. And his face is just as vacant and impassive as before, only there is an unknown quality to his voice. She drifts ever so slightly out of her thoughts. She does not question why he's here.

"Hello, Uncle." He stares now at her so carefully, eyes unhurried in their examination. _That's right_ : he had not seen her in decades. And she sees an emotion pass through his dull red eyes that looks reminiscent and strange. _Sentiment_.

Chouko scoffs and turns her head away, gritting her teeth slightly: "Don't tell me I look like her…"

The wind blows past them.

"In some ways…" he admits, his voice never losing that slow, smooth quality. "But mostly you do not…"

Chouko looks at the lake again, lost in memories, uncaring that he's here.

 _I don't look like her at all... she was much more beautiful..._

" _Hmmm_...my brother was right," he chuckles quietly to himself, the sound so strange to her ears. "You do outshine her."

"What?" Chouko whips her head around. His watchful eyes never stray from her face, keeping her own eyes captive as he takes a step forward.

"Cordelia always had something lacking, something which I can so clearly see in you…"

He has her attention now. Her stomach drops to the waves. "What are you talking about?"

" _Purity_... even when she was your age, she was always bitter, always spiteful, always _jealous_. And Karl made her **depraved**."

The longer he speaks the more she gets the most unsettling of feelings. The more the slow smoothness of his voice thickens and becomes suffocating. He advances and her heart trembles with the curious force she exerts on herself to keep from backing away from him in cowardice. His eyes start to seem less like a dull red and more like a simmering one. Patient and heated.

"But you…" he gestures elegantly. "Innocent, untainted, **pure**... it's intoxicating…" and though he is not close it feels as if he's leaning in, and her breath catches. "I wonder how your blood would taste-"

He kisses her hand, eyes looking up at her all the while -now he's a breath away- and all of her veins tremble. His own breath hits her face and she stares in fascination at the way her veins quake, his simmering eyes track them too...

and she is suddenly snapped out of a trance. She pulls her hand back and gives him a disapproving glare. Her fangs bare with distaste:

 _"How can you say that?!"_

He is unaffected: "It's not uncommon for families to share blood, especially royal ones. Your mother and I had-"

"I'm not my mother," Chouko snarls.

There is nothing surprised in his face, but his body straightens and tenses. And in his hungry, lustful eyes she can imagine him calculating the risks and coming to the conclusion that he's made a mistake with her. And then he is sobering, hardening, and his eyes take on a dusky red.

"No," he composes himself. "You're not."

But Chouko has seen the look in his eyes and before she was astounded. Now she is hostile:

"How dare you suggest such a thing! You disrespect her memory!"

"You **are** her memory," he pronounces, his eyes do all the gesturing for him. "The very spitting image-"

"She would be outraged and betrayed-"

"She is dead, Chouko. And it's not as if I was truly serious-" His lustful impulse gone, she can see him trying to take back his words.

 _Disgusting lecher._

"Did you ever love her at all?" Chouko asks with repulsion, the lake forgotten.

He reaffirms himself: "Love is different for demons and vampires-"

"I can't believe you!" Chouko rages. "Using her for your own benefit just like all the rest of her rotten lovers! And then she dies and you would use me, her daughter, just the same-"

His eyes narrow on her: "That is a very serious accusation-"

"If you never loved her, what are you even doing here?!" Chouko cries.

He is icy and _revolting_ : "Paying my respects to her memory-"

"You don't even know what respect is. I see you very clearly now," Chouko narrows her own eyes. "You say you didn't use her, that you truly cared about her. Tell me," and then she advances upon him, "what have you ever done for her?"

Offended: "I made her happy-"

"You let her die-"

Richter is indignant: "So did you-"

Chouko becomes prickly: "I was here, where were you-!?"

"Putting her heart away for safekeeping."

"And that's what your 'love' for her amounts to! Superficiality and selfishness!" Angry and pained tears outline her eyes but refuse to fall. "While she was dying all you could think of was cutting out her heart to keep for a trophy! She lost her life and you wanted a _souvenir_!" Chouko sneers at him and mocks: "So where did put it? In a case somewhere-!?"

He leans directly into her face sharply and speaks assiduously: "In a human girl. The very same one you share this house with. While you were too pathetic to save her I protected her and stored her heart away for safekeeping."

Chouko gasps.

"Into- Yui?"

The man with the green hair smiles slowly in satisfaction. "Yes. So you see, I am the only one who truly did anything for her that night."

She is speechless.

"I'm going to need you later on," he says."And if you respect your mother's memory, you will assist me. If not, then you disgrace her."

He turns.

"Wait-!" Chouko steps forward.

He disappears.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

 _Keep walking..._

Deep down inside, there are only flashes of memory to be perceived.

The strange man appeared...their...uncle. But then they were in her room and suddenly she was on her knees. Her heart had punched a hole inside of her and she was falling down a well within herself, every second growing fainter.

Then she was looking up at herself as if through eyes not her own and a body not of her own, as the man led her somewhere ... And then that voice appeared… Echoing all throughout her so that she could not pinpoint where it was coming from and when she tried to scream at her body not to follow him, the other voice drowned out her own.

Or was it her own...?

But surely it wasn't, because she did not want to follow the strange man down the dark corridors and into the room with the bookshelf for a door.

 _-A flash_

Her father's diary turning to dust-

...Or was that her imagination?

 **Cold, red eyes.**

And he left her within the room alone. Distantly, she knew he would return. The voice that had echoed within the hollowness of her body had receded, but even as she screamed at herself she could not get her body to move. It was as if without the man her body was an empty vessel awaiting command. She could only stare into the dark at the torn black dress with white roses and drowned with blood.

"There you are," a voice says behind from behind Yui. It's familiar and so she wishes it welcome. But she also hears hostility within it, and so she hesitates.

She cannot turn around to see.

"In this room of all places, looking innocent and stupid as ever. But I know better," the mysterious voice says. "Now I know what you are you selfish little bitch!"

A shadow trails the wall before her eyes, a dark silhouette pacing insidiously, its owner behind her and out of her field of sight.

"I couldn't understand at first," says the voice, "you're just a pathetic little mortal; so how could you hear me when no one else, not even my brothers, could? How could you know things about our pasts that we have never spoken of? How could you, an insignificant human, have blood that tastes such a way? What could make _you_ so different than all the brides before?"

And Yui hears the voice sharpening with every sentence, agitation rising.

"But now I know. Now I know that you are nothing more than a _fraud_! Bet you thought you were special, I bet they did too...but now I know that everything special about you came from the blood pumping through your veins, the blood of _my mother_ whose heart lies in your body! "

The shadow disappears and its owner emerges before her, piercing and sharp purple eyes glaring into her own vacant ones. Wild and angry.

Chouko Sakamaki.

"Speechless, are you, now that I know you're an imposter! The only thing making you different is **her**. You're not special, you're just like any other pathetic mortal, just like any other sacrificial bride that tried to take my place, and _you will die_ like the rest of them! You don't deserve their attention, don't deserve my mother's heart or blood, you're unworthy! _It should be **ME!"**_

Chouko jumps at her wildly, taking her shoulders and violently slamming her head into the wall.

"And now you look like one of Kanato's dolls; lifeless, dull, and submissive as a proper sacrificial bride should be. No matter," the woman smiles, fangs glinting in the candlelight. "I won't rob you of the chance to be like the rest of them, all I require is your heart. Just be still like that while I take what rightfully should be mine!"

And now that Yui is faced her way, she can fully see Chouko unveil sharpened talons, and is in direct view to watch powerlessly as she rips her heart out. Her tongue is lead in her mouth, her jaw a bear trap locked resolutely shut.

She can't even scream for help.

She is truly a doll; she can only submit and watch blankly as her masters play their terrible games with her.

A flash of pain… and then she registers that Chouko ripped the neckline of her dress open. Yui watches as the frail remnants of tatters in Chouko's claws fall to the floor like shredded ribbons. The neckline of the nightdress, now spiralling in a violent and jagged v down her torso, slips over her shoulders. The rest of it slides down her body like water and she's standing only in her underwear. It is then that Yui starts crying.

Because she's powerless and completely at the mercy of a wicked being who only wants to do her harm and who revels in her vulnerability. Because she's forced to watch herself being abused and degraded. And because she can only stand there like a hollow vessel as another's will is pressed upon her own, suffocating her voice with the most malicious oppression. And though she cannot feel her limbs to move them to action, she knows that she will feel every article of pain inflicted upon her and she knows, looking into the eyes of that woman, that she will not be kind to her.

Because even though she doesn't know what the woman is talking about, the "heart" inside of her, she knows that she is being blamed for it. Tortured for something out of her control, for the simple reason of being who she is and _existing._

Her heart begins to beat so hard and so quickly that with every drum it shakes her vision and threatens to break from her chest.

 _-ba-bump, Ba-bump-_

The purple-haired woman extracts a long, silver knife from her pocket and Yui dies a little inside.

 _Ba-bump-_

She can't watch. So the mortal turns her eyes, the only things she can control, away to the side. A black dress, bloodied and torn down the middle, greets her vision. And in the half-light of the candles and darkness, it calls out to her. It sympathizes.

 _Ba-bump-!_

Pain, like nothing she's ever felt before, tunnels into her chest. The blade carves into her breast, splitting her open without mercy or relent but all she can look at is the dress on the pedestal.

 _-Ba-bump, **Ba-bump, BA-BUMP!-**_

 _What a beautiful dress…_

 _"Take it~ It's yours_ ," that strange voice commands.

And she doesn't notice that the pain has stopped, the blade ceasing its excavation.

"Richter! What-?!"

 _Take it!_

Because she remarks how silky and smooth the dress feels under her fingertips, despite being stained with blood. How marvelous the velvet texture of the roses is, similarly speckled with blood. How fresh it is, even despite its age… And when a crimson bud blooms from within the heart of the rose, and the petals wither and liquefy and disintegrate into red powder, Yui watches in wonder and rapture at the purple-haired woman's magic trick. When she feels liquid on her hands and looks down, the magician appears from the soul of the dress, stretches her hands out and grabs the mortal's face.

And it's not until she sees the malice in the woman's sparkling green eyes that she feels the tremors of fear. But by then, it's too late, for she is trapped within the cunning smirk of the woman and those beautiful green eyes steal her soul away.

Once again, there is no bright light to let her know that the end has come. Once again, there is only darkness. She is thrown down a bottomless black hole, screaming, but the only sounds that reach her ears are echoes.

 _"What are you doing! Let me go! Her heart is mine-!"_

 _"Be silent you foolish girl."_

And as the human falls into the black oblivion, something sinister shakes the walls of her prison and reverberates throughout, resolutely. A voice:

 **"Long time no see, my daughter. Did you miss me?"**

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

A/N: I still do previews btw, I actually have no idea what I'm going to put in the next chapter preview, but I will do them for my reviewers!


	14. Chapter 12

№➊➋ **|❝White Elephant❞**

"Did you miss me?"

There is silence in the room.

The blonde woman's smile balances precariously on her face with every stretch of inactivity, nearly on the verge of slipping with irritation, until:

"I-I ..."

A tidal wave of overwhelming emotions and nearly drown Chouko. A scarce few tears leak from her eyes, so many feelings bursting to be expressed, yet the pure emotion crushing her windpipe and choking her words make them stutter pathetically:

" _I.. m-miss~ed you so~o mu..ch-!"_ And the dam of her eyelids breaks and the tears shake her already trembling body as she crushes her mother in an embrace.

And it's with great fortune that she does, for the mother can scarcely hold back her distaste at the revolting and mawkish display. She makes eye contact with her lover Richter and the man stares back knowingly. A glimmer in his eyes tells her what she had almost overlooked and then she sighs silently before returning her daughter's embrace:

"I know," she endeavors to reassuringly pat her daughter's back, holding back the urge to shove the mess of tears and cries away from her.

"I'm so-" her voice cuts out like a radio. "I'm so sorry, that I almost- _I almost k-killed you_ ," the grief narrows her voice into a mere whisper at the end and anyone who heard such a thing would see the absolute, genuine emotion of it. It is enough to make stone statues cry and move even the saints in Heaven to tears on behalf of the little vampire. Bitterness stings the older woman: _even Richter pities the girl._

"You didn't know of Richter's plans. How could I condemn you for your ignorance?" _Easily like I've done to so many in the past._

"T-thank y-you! _Thank you, Mother!"_ And though the mother is disgusted to be trapped in the emotional embrace of the vampire woman, because her mortal body surely doesn't have the strength to move her, in the deepest corners of her mind she admits to herself that Richter is right, after all. With this display, Chouko relies on her, and so she can use her. And she must. And she will.

It's with this thought that she bears the uncomfortable hug and manages to rub the girl's back in the simulation of care, yet she cannot completely hide the shudders of disgust and desire to separate. _Karlheinz, the girl was crying and snivelling into me like I was a tissue or a teddy bear!_

But she sucks it up, and realizes she can both get away from the imbecile while still holding her unfaltering adoration and affection:

"Darling, why don't we get ourselves cleaned up, and then we can better discuss what comes next?" It's posed as a question, pitched with compassion. But it's an order and with but a few more seconds the superficial coating of tenderness would melt from the fury of the inner hatred it conceals.

"Yes, Mother," a whisper of assent, and inwardly Cordelia is both pleased and irritated, but she expresses this only in the eyes she makes to her lover and she tells him to stay away. He did a negligent job of inspiring fealty within her daughter and now she would have to rectify that. As they say; _if one wants something to be properly done, one must do it oneself!_

Cordelia has no worries, however, she has been controlling her daughter all her insignificant little life, and no amount of years of separation could cancel that hold. This would be easy, Chouko would be under her absolute authority again, she would serve her purpose. And afterwards? Afterwards belongs to the victors and no number of puppets and children would steal her victory from her.

The two women disappear.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

In the safety of her old room, dusty now, Cordelia and Chouko fall into old rhythms. Cordelia chooses a black dress of Chouko's to wear, "modifies" it through a series of ripping and pinning, and the end result has it fitting Cordelia's new body like a perfect glove. Ironically, Cordelia also took a pair of Chouko's gloves to wear, long and black, to go with Chouko's sleeveless dress. The dress has been a favorite of the girl, one that made her feel mature and beautiful, but as the female zips her mother in she realizes that it had only ever been a ploy to look more like her mother. And as her mother holds her arms out expectantly and Chouko slips the gloves onto her, Chouko can see that the dress was always meant for someone like her mother. Someone who was naturally radiant, something no manner of dress could compensate for. As the saying goes: _it's not the dress, it's the woman._ And as Cordelia looks up at her through green eyes and blonde hair that fact has never been more apparent, it's as if even she sees it too:

"How do I look?" There's something taunting in her eyes.

"Beautiful," but the quiet and unconscious envy that Cordelia had instilled in her since birth prevents her from seeing it. Cordelia frowns and turns abruptly to look at her reflection in her vanity's mirror across the room. "Perfect" was what she was expecting to hear, but she supposes she can't punish her daughter too much for that mistake. After all, _this pathetic mortal's body will never know perfection._ Disdain wrinkles her youthful face as she catches sight of the human's blonde hair:

"Brush my hair for me, will you?"

The mother waits for no answer as she gathers herself upon the vanity stool and her daughter falls into step behind her with a brush. Cordelia's green eyes roam over the purple strands trapped within its teeth and she smiles a little to herself before staring at herself in the mirror. Chouko begins the familiar brushing routine like she used to do decades ago, but even though it brings happiness to her chest, it's not quite the same. Curious.

Cordelia's eyes roam all throughout the mirror image and some degree of disappointment hits her. The idea of living in such an unworthy body for eternity was...unfavorable. Compared to her former, radiant glory, would Richter look at her the same as before? Would _Karl_ still admire her beauty as she slowly plunged the knife into his body? Would he think she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen as the life faded from his eyes? _Would he love her in that moment more than any?_

But Cordelia's eyes drag themselves out of the depths of her own and to her daughter's own image in the mirror. They stop dead on the long purple waves cascading down her back-

A sharp pain suddenly tugs at her and the comb locks onto her strands with a jerk that makes her cry out: "Ow!" Her furious green eyes attach themselves onto her daughter with unholy judgement.

"I'm sorry! The texture of the hair is just…" Chouko catches herself as she realizes that this is her mother's eternal body. "Different," she finishes.

Cordelia looks at her short, blonde hair in the mirror, and then her daughter's own long, majestic purple strands. And suddenly no amount of combing the short platinum locks of the mortal will appease her. How she wanted to pick up her knife and scalp her daughter's head until there was nothing left but blood, shredded skin, and sparse thatches of purple fuzz. _Then she would never think herself superior to me!_

Cordelia composes herself: "When you're done combing my hair, you must remind me to trim yours again. It's gotten out of hand," she comments.

Chouko nods vacantly, the words echoing around in her head. _Why do they sound so different this time?_ Another voice in her head says that she offended her mother with her comment, and that voice wins out as shame presses down upon her. The brush stops.

"I've finished."

Cordelia's gaze flits to her hair in the mirror.

"I'm sorry, Mother, I know that this will be your face forever, and… And so, I will endeavor to love it equally."

Cordelia chuckles: "Don't." Chouko looks at her in astonishment. "It's a hideous face; plain, naive, and nothing short of unremarkable," she faces her new look in the mirror again. "Though I do confess I find looking at it hilarious. Like one of those stupid, breakable little dolls! I'm sure I'll have to do much work with it before it even has the chance of becoming anything even remotely resembling loveable," Cordelia laughs, then sighs full of energy. She gets up; "Now sit down."

Chouko obeys, and Cordelia gets to work snipping. And as Chouko watches the long strands fall to the floor, she can't help but think that maybe she did look better with long hair. About how the dress looked better before she altered it. But the seriousness in her mother's eyes silences her. There is glee there too and Chouko remembers that they haven't done this in years and she doesn't want to take the joy away from her mother. _She's already suffered so much..._

Ashamed, her eyes fall to her lap, and she lets her mother finish her work. A pat on the shoulder tells her it's done, and when Chouko sees her reflection, a thought goes into her mind: _I don't think I've ever really liked this hairstyle..._

But Cordelia looks pleased as she smiles into the mirror like a cat, a genuinely proud glimmer in her green eyes for the first time. She puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder and all other thoughts fade to black as pure happiness consumes Chouko's heart.

 _I think...maybe we'll be alright, after all._

"I saw what you did to Ayato through that idiot mortal's brain. Good work, my daughter. Now let's go finish them off," Cordelia turns to leave the room. Chouko's face drops in shock, and she gets up from the chair.

"What? No, no!" Chouko stands. "No, Mother. Don't you see? We don't need to do that anymore!" Chouko stands still, trying to keep her voice level.

Cordelia turns to face Chouko like she's mentally challenged:

"Yes we do, it's not enough that they were punished, we can't stop until every one of them is dead," surely she must understand this by now. Surely she knows this. "That's why you were going to kill him-"

"No! I only did that because you were dead, because I thought you were never coming back!" Chouko says, desperately trying to make her understand. "But you're alive; no one else has to die! Can't you see?" Chouko smiles. "We can all live; this is our second chance to heal and fix things, we can be a family again!"

Cordelia is embittered:

"I didn't come back here to _play house_. The _only reason_ I came back was for Karlheinz, and to settle my debts with the triplets," a hard edge cuts into her green eyes. "That's all."

Chouko looks upon her mother like a child who can't see reason:

"Mother, we don't have to fight anymore! It's over! Now we can begin to forgive each other and move past this," she grabs her mother's hand. "Everyone's been punished enough, now is the time to forgive and be grateful that we're all together again-!"

Lightning cracks as Cordelia slaps her hand away.

"Don't be so naive, Chouko! There's no forgiving, I'll never forgive what they did to me! _I'll_ decide when their punishments are enough! We're no family!"

"But, Mother-!" Chouko pleads.

Cordelia turns around in a rage.

"Ugh! I'm so **sick** of hearing you call me that! Mother this! Mother that! I didn't even want to have kids! Waste of my time!" She faces Chouko, venom spitting out harshly. "I'm not your _mother_ , " she spits it like a curse. "And even if I had wanted to be, who could ever want an imbecile daughter like you! _Useless_! Couldn't even _avenge me_! Pathetic. If you won't kill your brothers then you're worthless to me, you can die right with them for all I care."

All the air is knocked out of Chouko like a punch to her stomach and she's left gasping: "Mother-!"

"I'm not your mother, and you're not my daughter; you're just some **stupid bitch** that looks like me!" Cordelia pushes Chouko to the ground with what little strength she has in her mortal body, but it doesn't matter, because when the vampire hits the floor she doesn't get up.

Oh the floor, Chouko's face has gone completely ash white, her mouth frozen in a gaping "o", hand clutching onto her heart, eyes open wide all as if she was dead, but the painful rasps of her breath barely going in is the sign that she is still alive. Her body is wracked with pain, trying desperately to get in oxygen, tears streaming profusely down her cheeks; her whole world has been destroyed.

The mother takes one disdainful glance at her daughter on the floor. "Pathetic," she sniffs, and then departs the room, having better things to do.

A struggling breath lets out from a girl who can scarcely breathe or believe.

The blonde woman walking down the lonely corridor hears distantly, and for one second her face frowns with concern and her eyes flicker pink as she pauses with thoughts of turning around.

" _Shut up!"_ she hisses to herself.

And then she's back on track, walking again resolutely to her destination.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

"I thought the next time I'd see you would be in Hell," Laito says from his position under the staircase of the Sakamaki living room.

"I'm sorry not to have lived up to your expectations," Cordelia chuckles next to Richter from her own position looking down on him from the top of the staircase. "But it's better this way, is it not? All of us reunited like this? Together again like old times?" But the nostalgic glint from her eyes fades and in its place is only malice: "Though, admittedly, we _are_ missing one person."

Each person in the room freezes, they are loathe to bring up that one missing party. The only thing worse than a resurrected Cordelia, would be a resurrected Cordelia and Chouko together. And in each of their hearts, surely they know that this is the fight they tried to avoid all those years ago. Killing Cordelia was only a temporary stall, eventually the time had to come when they acknowledged their own sins and deceit.

"But no matter," she says demurely to herself. "She's unnecessary, useless really since she refused to assist me in my revenge."

The room falls completely silent at that thought.

"Oh how precious! You think that means she still cares about you! That she'll try to save you!" Cordelia laughs. "Don't be so sure about that: she won't even lift a finger! Last I saw her she couldn't even stand. Pathetic! Absolutely _useless_!" The tension rises in the room as they start to anger, but Cordelia doesn't care to take notice. "But who needs her anyway? Not when I've got you!" She turns to Richter with that breathless glow in her eyes. She leans in to whisper in his ear intimately, knowing that everyone can still hear her: " _Kill them and I'll give you everything!"_

He down looks at her with those same blank eyes, cold and uninspired: "You really are the most foolish of women," Cordelia's smirk drops. "You think I came here to settle your petty squabbles?" She backs away. "And for what?" he advances upon her with monstrous intent. "The promise of the throne, the same promise you made the last time I saved you? No." He grabs her by the arm so that she can move no further. "It was fun watching you play your silly little game, but no more." She struggles. His grip is steel. "Once I awaken the girl she will be entirely mine. And once I kill these boys," he gestures to them imperiously: "I will be the only heir to the throne! And by the time I claim it and Karl is dead, you and all the rest of them will only have been faceless tools in the game of my ascension!" He leans into her, her face frightened: " _I. Have. Used._ _ **You**_ _,"_ he whispers just as intimately into her own ear, before taking her by the waist and baring his fangs into her neck.

"Stop," a soft but firm voice interrupts Richter's actions and Ayato's motion to intervene himself. Chouko Sakamaki appears just a step away from the fighting couple. Richter and Cordelia turn and lift their eyes to face her.

"Come to rescue me, have you, my daughter?" Cordelia's tone comes out as playful, but deep down inside, Richter restraining her by the throat, desperately she hopes against hope that this is true. Because surely no one else will save her.

Every person in the room holds their breath for her reply.

"No. And I have not come to fight either," her eyes are misty yet determined. "Give up. Let her go, the both of you," her voice is string as she speaks. She turns to Richter. "Let her go, Uncle. You have not beaten _him_ in the past millennia and you will not now because of this. Give up." She turns. "And you, Mother, you don't deserve to live, and you know very well there's no way you will leave this room alive. So give up."

While Richter ponders her words, Cordelia laughs: "I don't deserve to live? Then _neither do you_ ," she sneers.

"And I know it now. And I don't fight it. But if you continue this pointless struggle then I will fight _you_ ," Chouko's eyes rest resolutely on them.

Richter snickers and they watch him. "I'm sick and tired of letting _foolish women_ speak. You want a fight? Then you will have it-!" and he lunges at her, suddenly, with a sword.

A flash of red hair and Ayato swipes Richter's blade to the side, his charge just missing Chouko's shoulder. A cut tears there and the smallest bit of blood drips. The sweep of silver slices the air and Ayato and Richter fight before her, two blows later and Chouko knows that Ayato will not win.

"Chouko!"

But then a blade flies up the balcony at Chouko and she grabs it midair to block her Uncle, and she and Ayato are fighting Richter together. But just as the odds seem to be evening, a fury of slices has Ayato's sword flying out of his hand, and he's exposed. Richter aims to drive his sword like a lance through Ayato's shoulder and, in despair, " _NO!"_ , Chouko throws her hands on the blade to stop its entry. The scene shifts and has everyone gasping. But the force is slowed barely and the damage is great, red rivers from her hands run down the length of her arms, and the blade is not through Ayato's shoulder, but Chouko's collarbone. She hits the wall and then the floor when Richter unsheathes his bloody sword from the hilt of her chest, the movement slicing her hands to ribbons, and when she hits the floor with a sickening _thud!_ Ayato's blood runs cold from his body and he attacks Richter in a blind fury.

The movements in the room transpire so quickly; suddenly the brothers surround Chouko's motionless body and Ayato is fighting Richter weaponless as the Uncle swings haphazardly. And though he dodges spectacularly, each advance bringing him wildly closer, Ayato gets careless, and once slice cuts a bloody gash up his chest diagonally toward his neck. And though the cut is shallow, the blood splatters like an explosion.

He staggers back with hesitation. Thick and ominously heavy, the blood creates the most chilling sensation upon her skin, the terror of watching Chouko and Ayato damaged so heartlessly.

"Ayato, stop!" Because she couldn't bear what happened to Chouko to happen to him or even his other brothers. Yui separates herself from the uncle in one bound and stands in front of Ayato and between them, having distracted them enough to pause their battle.

With all eyes on her, she waits not a second longer, before revealing the silver blade Subaru had given her, and plunging it into her heart.

Even though she was not herself at the time, she remembers the words that Chouko had tried to say to her mother:

" _Mother, we don't have to fight anymore! Let it be over! Everyone's been punished enough-!"_

There's some pain, some being an understatement, but that's okay because it's quick and it's necessary. Now it can finally be over. It's her greatest hope that at least her death will stop all this fighting, just as Chouko had wanted.

Richter's eyes widen.

Ayato and the boys blink.

Yui's eyes close.

 _Now it can finally be over._

Chouko's eyes never open.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

A/N: So the next chapter is the last chapter, what do you guys think is gonna happen?


	15. Chapter 13

№➀➂ **|❝Dead Ringer❞**

The events that happened next are remembered in only irrelevant snippets: with Yui stabbing herself and hitting the floor and the life draining from her eyes their Uncle's plans were ruined and he fled with one last frustrated glare. No one pursued him, because his absence only made the terrible truth more evident: there are two young women rapidly dying on the floor. Soon they were moved to the couches, but this only exaggerated the helplessness the boys felt seeing the profuse amounts of blood seeping through the upholstery. The room is still; no one knows exactly what to do. The silence is oppressive and stifling.

Ayato looks at the ground with misty eyes, determined not to look at his sister's form, before saying quietly:

"Can you save her?"

Reiji's face is an unfamiliar combination of focus, confusion, and contrition, which only makes the words heavy and condemning as he says:

"Yes...and no."

"What does that mean?" Laito quickly asks.

Reiji sighs, shoulders collapsing uncharacteristically as if all the world's weight is pushing him down and he can scarcely bear it any longer: "Her wounds are of the most fatal degree that even a vampire cannot lightly recover from. At least," he pauses, eyes looking at the ground. "Not in a conventional manner..."

"Meaning?" Laito grits his teeth, refusing to look at the prone form of his unconscious sister lying on the chaise lounge. No one but Kanato who lightly strokes her cheek can bear to look at her.

"She must go into a restorative hibernation, of sorts. Be still and motionless, placed under the supplement of a continuous blood supply so as to best repair the wounds with no risk of further injury-"

" _Another coma_ , you mean?" Laito looks angrily at Reiji at the mere suggestion.

"Yes," Reiji concedes.

"For how long?" Shu supplies from his position lying on another couch and staring casually up at the ceiling.

There is a pause. "Centuries."

Kanato stiffens immediately.

" _Centuries?!_ How dare you suggest such a thing, again-!" Ayato bursts the shield of silence in an angry rage and grabs Reiji by the collar, fangs bared and hissing.

Reiji turns on him with a disdainful sneer, viciously picking and throwing his hand off like something _filthy_ : " _That sword_ was no small matter; it was designed by our father for the sake of battle against other immortals like us. Richter had meant to _kill_ her, the blade narrowly missed her heart. It is through _sheer_ _luck alone_ that it only pierced her shoulder-!"

And at that notion, Ayato quiets, hands trembling into fists, barely holding back another eruption.

A bitter chuckle echoes in the room.

A childish yet disturbingly hollow voice sounds: "Did you hear that, my Teddy," Kanato says, still stroking Chouko's deathly pale cheek in a trance. "Once again you leave the world~ and it is _all Ayato's fault!_ " His teeth clench and grind.

"How dare you-!" Ayato lunges for him.

Subaru grabs him.

But Kanato is in his own world that only he and Chouko inhabit, and as he strokes her cold cheek he perceives nothing else. With her bloody and pale and unconscious and him smiling so bitterly, it's an ironic picture disturbingly reminiscent of the night he stroked his mother's face before setting her aflame. Only this time tears line his eyes and they are enough to douse the flames of the past and put them out of his mind completely.

"Oh to be questioned by a hypocrite! He foolishly does not remember, my Teddy, that _he_ was the one who was supposed to watch you and keep you away when Mother was dying." The soft look in his eyes sharpens as his teeth bare and he hisses: " _Foolishly_ forgets that it was _he_ that lost his sword, disarmed by Uncle, and allowed you to be pierced by that unforgiving blade that was meant for him." His hand stops its desperate track. He turns, a shadow passes over his face: " _It should have been_ _ **you**_ _!"_

Kanato lunges. Then he collapses into tears mere feet away, the violent red passion of his rage wilting like a rose. "T-ted-dy~!"

A few of the brothers stop and stare as the smallest brother cries on the floor. He is one of the freer ones, more easily able to express his emotions. Emotion is a double-edged sword; at times it can be a blessing or a curse. But at this time, the brothers watch in envy, wishing that they too can find some way to express these terrible feelings that years of suppression have made fester.

Laito turns his eyes away in frustration, tears making once-clever, even panurgic eyes now glossy.

"So what happens next?" Comes the small voice of Subaru who has managed to remain quiet, his voice somber and lovely like a sad tune from a lonely instrument.

Reiji straightens: "Now I recreate the potion that was used years ago to send her into sleep."

"But surely-" Laito breaks in urgently, desperately. "Surely if it is the same potion then you know now how to wake her-?!"

Reiji's eyes narrow with bitter reminiscence, a frown pursing his lips as he stares into the air: "No. I never did discover the trigger of her awakening..."

"The mortal," Shu's lax voice speaks out as if it is apparent. "If she had the heart of Cordelia this entire time it would have called out to her."

The eyes of all conscious widen at the thought.

"Yes! I did find her in _that room_ while we were playing hide and seek a month ago, after all," Laito observes with surprise.

Reiji's eyes narrow bitterly as he had not considered that nor had the thought even occurred to him.

"Simple. Then as soon as she is recovered Yui can coerce her soul to awaken-" Subaru starts.

"Unfortunately that is not an option."

" _What did you just say_?" Ayato grits his teeth.

Reiji adjusts his glasses upon the bridge of his nose. "The potion I made requires very rare ingredients. They were extremely difficult to find and are next to impossible to replace or replicate. _There is no time to recollect them._ The key ingredient is one that cannot be substituted and one which I spent many years searching to find; an extremely powerful, restorative ingredient. Originally I had believed it could bring one back from the state of death to life," Reiji frowns, a regretful look momentarily compromising the solemnity of his face. He continues: "but as I later learned, its powers can only work on the living. This ingredient is extremely powerful and has the capacity to return someone, even afflicted with fatal wounds, back to their original state. Without this ingredient I can do nothing. _However_ , this ingredient critical to saving Chouko is also the key ingredient in the potion to save Miss Komori."

" _What_?!"

"The choice is between Yui and Chouko."

"That's no choice at all, how can you even think to save anyone but our sister?!" Laito hisses, eyes turning crimson.

"Because even if I administer the potion to Chouko and her wounds eventually heal, there is no guarantee that she will ever wake up," Reiji reasons. "There is too much uncertainty, at least the mortal's health however can be guaranteed-"

" _How dare you suggest we leave her to die-!"_

"Because Miss Komori stabbed herself in the heart with an immortal blade, the same kind that pierced Chouko, her potion is virtually the same as Chouko's, but there is one other critical element. Miss Komori's heart is not her own, it is being possessed by a parasite and the key ingredient in the potion _can destroy_ this parasite and return her to full health. Apart from this only an awakening can save her and she has had no signs of awakening thus far. _If_ we save Chouko and Miss Komori _does not receive_ the potion her mortal body will die and she will be reawakened as Cordelia-"

"So what! We're older and stronger now," Ayato proclaims with bluster and bravado, blood itching at the thought of both his sister dying and saving _that woman._ "Cordelia is not as powerful as she used to be; as we've gotten older she's only gotten weaker-"

"She's only gotten more _determined_ , you mean," Reiji interrupts. "The injustices we have done her have only fueled her vengeance in her years of dormancy, and we all know very well how a situation like that can turn out," no one misses Ayato tracing the lines on his chest where Chouko stabbed only a month ago. "Cordelia is a parasite; not strong on her own, but once she worms her way into someone else's head then she is nearly impossible to drive out. Be not mistaken: as long as she lives she will always try to recruit others to her cause of vengeance. If Chouko is saved, Yui will die, Cordelia will be reborn in her body, and we cannot _kill_ her because she's needed to wake Chouko. To conclude: we would have to keep her alive for many years."

"So then we keep her under lock and key," Shu says simply. "No one said she had to live the life she had before-"

"But Chouko would be asleep for centuries before she'd be recovered enough to awaken," Laito suddenly says with a disturbingly withdrawn look on his face. He turns to Ayato, pain and fear in his voice: "You say we've become stronger but how long before Cordelia gets in our heads again? How long before she provokes us to do something rash? How long of _plotting_ and _lying in wait_ before she sees an opportunity to kill us all? Either she dies here today or we all do sometime in the future. She will _never_ stop." There is something haunted in his eyes, evidence that he had suffered greatly at her hands in the past. It's what stops Ayato from lashing out at him, the final question unspoken but instinctively understood:

 _How long before we cannot hold ourselves back from killing her anyway?_

The exchange passes without a word, and as Kanato raises his teary eyes from the ground even he knows that nothing but death can ever wipe out the pain and suffering that they had all experienced.

Subaru speaks: "...So what you're saying is we can condemn either Chouko or Cordelia to death?"

"And we must decide quickly now," Reiji reiterates. "There's only so much time to make the potion before either one is lost forever."

The blonde woman with hands clutching her bleeding heart rests as deathly pale as the purple-haired woman encased in blood just adjacent to her.

 _Who do we save?_

"Save her," _his_ voice interjects, as if some outside force has told him the instinctual answer. "Save-"

* * *

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷDARKƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

There's a room at the end of the hall, a room of ghost whispers and glassy eyes, where sometimes one can hear the soft call of Scarborough Fair singing ever so quietly.

 _"Are you coming to Scarborough Fair~?"_

And the voice is childlike and sad, but effortlessly, heart wrenchingly beautiful.

 _"Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme~"_

And amid the hauntingly beautiful voice that stutters with choked sobs every few minutes, and surrounded by the shattered bodies of wax dolls strewn across the floor, at the center of the havoc rests a coffin.

 _"Remember me to one who lives there..."_

And on that coffin, locked so that it will never open, enscribed are the words: **My Most Precious** **Doll** **.**

 _"S-she once was a t-truu- a true love of-of mine-"_

The voice cuts out and never finishes. And the eyes of that most precious doll never open.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷDARKƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

* * *

 _Who do we save?_

"Save her," _his_ voice interjects, as if some outside force has told him the instinctual answer. "Save-"

* * *

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷMANIACƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

They were careless. _Hmph_! They were _fools_!

They had never seen a second of it coming. It must have seemed so strange, that the unholy green flames of pure hell were born so suddenly and before long swallowed the whole house with them. They must have thought that that would be the end of the "Impossible Choice", that though the flames were a stroke of misfortune and the Sakamaki mansion would be reduced to ash, it must have seemed a blessing to not have to make a choice, to leave the remains of the house and all its problems behind without a backwards glance of worry.

It was all wishful thinking. _His_ blessing, _their_ curse.

" _W-w...hat_ ," a wheezing breath. "What have you- d-d-done to h...er-?"

She wheezes and sputters and stutters hoarsely like an old, exhausted engine, and he supposes she is. Her eyes are broken as she looks upon the wilted human lying still on the cold, midnight grass. She coughs, and blood spurts like some sickly fountain. He laughs.

"What have _I_ done? Why I've saved her! She was abandoned in the flames with the hopes that she would burn to death, much like you," his eyes, so cold they could freeze the green fires of Hell, so sharp they could rip the sky open like paper. "But don't worry about her, she's reached safety. _Yours_ , however, is still in doubt." His face is solid and spooky and had Chouko not been bleeding to death and fading between life and death she might have feared it.

"I told you that the time would come for you to play your part. And what did you do, _dear niece_?" He asks so lightly. "You _crumbled!"_ He stomps on her shoulder viciously and she cries out.

When he removes his foot after grinding the heel in sadistically she whimpers and scrambles to crawl back, pain etched in every move.

"You could have been my good little girl and kept your promise," he hooks his claws through the meat of her calves and _drags_! She lets out a scream to the night.

"Shut up!" He slaps her across the face and she is painted with blood on every inch - _in her hair, on her teeth, in her nose, on her arms, and chest-_ She sobs weakly, the pain too much for her. "Women should do only as they're told, should follow the orders given to them by their betters! But instead, _you were disobedient!_ " He punches her in the face and her head whips back violently. "You _disrespected_ your mother's memory!" He picks her up by the throat and throws her down to the weeping ground.

He looms over her, eyes oppressive and all-consuming like the midnight sky above, and he rips her head back by her long purple hair. And for a second, he stares at it, entranced momentarily. "Foolish women," he chuckles. "The pair of you. Both fighting so desperately for someone who never had a chance of loving you. So pathetic and naive; in the same breath you destroyed all those who could ever have loved you. You really are the most _pathetic_ of creatures." Richter scoffs.

With her neck bared, her barely opened eyes stared at the sky, tears rolling down and drawing silver trails through the stains of dried blood on her face. She scarcely chokes out a breath before her chest cavity wheezes again.

"But I will say, in a small way I did grow fond of having a pathetic and inferior fool around to please me and play sycophant to my every desire. Perhaps when I awaken her," he nods to the comatose Yui on the ground a few feet away. "Maybe then I'll cut out her heart and put it into your body. If I close my eyes _just so_ -" they drop to a close, he leans in, "if I close my eyes...you even _**smell**_ like her." he breathes out in a huff of lust and the breath hits her neck and she shivers, goosebumps erupting and the sensation makes her watch to rip her flesh away. But she can scarcely move, scarcely breathe without being crippled with unadulterated pain.

" _Mmmm_ ~" he mumbles into her neck. "She smelled just like this," he cooes. "But," he pauses, "there's something just a little different about you. Something she _never_ had. It smells like… _like the blood of a virgin_. Pure and untainted and _**mawkishly**_ _delusional_ ," he whispers excitedly, drunkenly. "What a mouth-watering combination! I think _I will_ put her heart into this body, what an new twist her filthy, vile depravity will be wrapped in such an innocent and delicious package-!" His hand wanders along her body for a moment, as if caught in a trance.

He looks into her eyes for a moment, a smile finally crosses his face yet it's so jarringly repulsive, he looks at her as if to see if she's just as affected. He looks at her as if she's her mother and for the first time in her life, in this moment Chouko did not wish to be looked at like she was her mother. The greed and lust and unholy vengeance on his face and in his smile is the most sickening, gut-churning, bone-chilling expression in all contortion.

He kisses her hand in mock imitation of the way he greeted her only hours ago, before running his tongue up the deep, bloody slit in her hands, the crimson inking his face and making him look every bit the monster she now knows he is. And it's defiling and debasing and as he runs his tongue up the length of her arm to catch all the blood there, Chouko cannot help but see the end in his eyes.

The touches are frantic, the bloodlust threatening to drown him as he dives into her veins, and she closes her eyes in defeat. In the last moments she thinks on his words:

" _The pair of you. Both fighting so desperately for someone who never had a chance of loving you...and...in the same breath you destroyed all those who could ever have loved you."_

The faces of her brothers flash in her mind, the dark skin fades before her, the pain in her neck and the disgust on her body numbs to nothing, as the complete pain of all that she has lost and never had flashes forth under her eyelids like a long list of regrets winding into eternity. Water forces itself from beneath the tight command of her eyelids. A wheezing breath leaves her cracked lips for the last time.

 _My life was a pitiful lie._

Chouko leaves the world as she entered it; covered in tears and blood and despair.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷMANIACƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

* * *

 _Who do we save?_

"Save her," _his_ voice interjects, as if some outside force has told him the instinctual answer. "Save-"

* * *

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷECSTASYƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

The silence is heavy and oppressive in all lightness; because even though it looks like the potion will fix everything and she will be saved, Chouko knows that nothing is fixed or safe. Once again, her hibernation only delays the eventual despair, for what happy ending could possibly salvaged amongst all of their suppressed problems? And as she looks up at all of the faces around her, she understands why Ayato had Reiji wake her one last time, yet she still knows as they must surely know too that this isn't enough.

Her breath catches and the first tear falls, not only for her, but also for the mortal girl who had scarcely lived sixteen years before so graciously deciding to give up her life for another. " _I wish we had more time,_ " her voice comes out as a whisper, any attempt to raise its volume would send it crashing to the floor in irreparable pieces, and any attempt at keeping the lid off the dam of despair would burst with it.

"Don't cry, Chou-chan," her twin calls just above her head. But just as he was when they were younger, he is her mirror image, so as the second tear descends her cheek so does one fall down his to match.

" _I'm so sorry, for everything I did, and everything I didn't know I was doing_ -"

"Just show us your beautiful smile and all will be forgiven," Laito says kindly from his position on her left.

And she attempts it, she really does, but it must seem pained because his eyes alight with sadness. _Why is it all I can do is cause others pain?_

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, so- so... _tired_ all of a sudden," panic flows into her eyes at a rapid rate and they begin to dart all around. She makes to sit up. "I need to-" But she falls down all of a sudden and becomes paralyzed, which only increases the panic, as her eyes fall heavily and she fights as if these are her last moments in the world-

"Make it stop! Why is she slipping away?! _Help_ her!" Chouko hears Ayato's voice call to Reiji, but the overhead light gets brighter and suddenly she cannot feel the cushion of her coffin against her skin, or the IV needle in her arm.

As her vision fails her, a laugh escapes her mouth; "The next time I see you, you all better be married and happy...with- like three kids each-!" The next laugh is choked with a sob and she can no longer hold her eyes open.

"I'm- hhhhh~ I'm s-s...or…..y..~" She mutters, drowsy, and then she's gone from the world.

She could only hope as the light faded from her eyes and they closed, that some bride would enter each of their lives and this house and fill their hearts with the happiness they deserved; enough happiness to make them forget all the pain of the past that she had so cruelly put them through.

She could only hope.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷECSTASYƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

* * *

 _Who do we save?_

"Save her," _his_ voice interjects, as if some outside force has told him the instinctual answer. "Save-"

* * *

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷΉEAVENƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

" _We cannot burden her with the past, likewise we can no burden ourselves with our pasts and her forcing us to relive it constantly-"_

" _She is_ _no_ _burden. I love her…"_

" _And yet you could not say those words to her...cannot even say those words here now without tears springing from your eyes."_

" _So what?! We just send her away, how can you possibly think we'll accept that-?! Why don't you think that she's better off with us-"_

" _Because you know she isn't. What she's been through was bad enough, knowing the true depth of it that she is naive to even now would destroy her. There is no doubt that if she stayed, she would eventually find out, and she would never recover from it. If you love her, then you can accept this knowing that she has the chance to start afresh, unburdened-"_

" _And what about me? She gets to forget everything, I will_ _never_ _forget! How do I live myself and what I've done if I must live without her in my life-?! Where is_ _my_ _peace of mind-?!"_

" _In knowing that she starts fresh with every chance to be happy. Is that not what you've always wanted for her? Is that not what made you drawn to her in the first place?_

 _She is being sent to live with a nice human family; new body, new identity. She will have the life she ought to have had. Now, you may content yourself, if it pleases you, that she died. Or, you can believe that this saved her and she now has the chance to start over. Nonetheless, you must accept that she will_ _never_ _be what she was, that whoever she used to be_ _never existed_ _and neither did we. You can have_ _no_ _contact with her and you may_ _never_ _go searching for her, for you will find no trace of the person that existed before."_

The rest is blurred.

The boys look about the room in a trance, the news is surreal; a nightmare and dream wrapped in one hazy miasma. It's as if the floor has disappeared and they temporarily no longer have a grounding.

What does this all mean? Where to go from here?

A boy with blond hair recovers first, he sits up slowly, puts in his earbuds, scoops up the unconscious, but now recovering mortal female, and carries her away to her room in silence.

The boy who delivered the news stands still, watching his elder brother walk away, no trace of contempt in his eyes. It's almost a kind of understanding. The news would affect them all on different levels and yet they would all have their ways of coping. For once, Reiji does not judge Shu for his, merely closes his eyes wearily as if having just settled a long and emotionally draining problem. He pitches his glasses more resolutely on his face and disappears himself.

A boy with silver hair looks distant and conflicted; he had just lost his only chance to reconnect with his only friend. He has no other friends to turn to to help him get through this. No mother to tell him how he should feel and counsel and guide and console him. All that he learns, he learns alone, from trial and error and watching distantly. He observes his two brothers flee the room, the two never having known the girl well enough to warrant the emotion to freeze in place with the impact. But as he looks at the three triplets, he knows that he doesn't belong here either, he had only known Chouko briefly, after all. _If she was here, he'd- if he had someone he could talk to…_ But he doesn't. So he can only say to himself that he wishes the best for her in her new life. It's a bittersweet kind of wish, but sincerely meant. And every time he looks upon the white roses and remembers the way she had tried to punish them for spiking her with their thorns, the bitter ending of their time together is forgotten, and his wish for her happiness is renewed.

A purple haired boy, lost, looks at his hands as if there he can find the answers to questions he does not even know to ask. He does not speak, does not move. But later, after months of isolation and near-suicidal depression, he finds that something that he didn't even know was lost, that he didn't know he could regain. And his hands are empty no longer, now he holds within them a teddy bear, and he never lets it go again. He will never forget her memory, even the bad parts, even the way his sister looked when he cut her heart from her body. He doesn't want to forget, and this precious talisman in his hands ensures that he never will be without his better half again.

A boy with a fedora on his head stands so confusedly, almost frustratedly. Like the fire of an unsettled vendetta was raging within him all this time and instead of setting it free to do battle, water has been thrown upon him suddenly, and now it is all distantly and forcibly evaporating, culminating in nothing. And as he watches it all amount to nothing there is a great sadness underlying it there; that so many years of love, pain, and torment should end this way? Once again, she escapes all its consequences so painlessly and yet he is condemned to the torment of memory? There is a stray thought in the back of his mind that Reiji is right, and all he ever really wanted was her happiness, and if he loves her this should satisfy him. But it is small and weak in a chasm of despair; he is jealous and selfish and he can't stand to be away from her, especially like this! Like so many years ago all over again! She forgets it all, and once again a femme fatale has ruined him for all womankind, and even in the absence of the dominatrix herself he is in torment. Oh to love someone so much to the point of hatred!

And once again he is thrown back into the cycle of the past. Eventually he might come to realize that there is some happiness and freedom of the heart to be found there, but for now, there is only bitterness and jealousy and hatred. As of now, Reiji is a fool, and Laito will choose to believe that she is not happy and alive to live without him and all reconciliation between them that now can never be; she is dead, and with the end of that chapter she will forever go down in the personal history of his mind; _his_ for all eternity.

The thoughts in the mind of the red head are not so dissimilar. He is pained, he is somewhat selfish, he longs for the future that might have seen them together. But he had had a past with the woman, and never had to imagine what her love felt like, never had to desire her so selfishly, or distantly. He can content himself in the lowest times with the happiest memories of their time together and know that she is in better times. Ayato chooses to believe and knows in his heart that _his Chouko_ is dead, but in his mind, she is reborn without him, freer, and happier as a person like her was always meant to be. A happy, foolish, stupid little butterfly flying around the world with colorful wings and no fear of falling. Just a limitless sky and the breeze always carrying her higher. The first stage of coping is anger, hot and red and explosive like magma. But the second is peace.

Far, far away, a little baby girl with coppery wisps of hair opens her eyes to the sun, wearing a ridiculously floral dress with matching lace booties on her tiny feet as her adoring parents coo at her, trying to get her attention with a stuffed giraffe. But she's more interested in the lush green of the park and the feel of the summer air on her face... _nah_! That's just fluff and prose! She's really just lightly teething on her small hand, mouth slightly agape to accomplish this, looking like an adorable little slobbery monster! Her parents gush and try to capture her attention, but something fantastical, that she has never seen before in all her twelve weeks of life, comes into view. Emerging just above the brim of her hat floats a dazzling purple butterfly. The baby's breath hiccups to a pause, she freezes like a little plush statue, as the winged creature floats to rest softly on her little nose. A second passes between the two fragile creatures, a lifetime of irony and innocence, before the butterfly flutters its long wings, the child is spooked, lashes out at it, and, missing, it escaping, and promptly the child begins crying to the heavens. But the parents are quick to console the baby, and they continue to do so, always diligent and ready to protect their little baby, for years and years to come.

" _Because if we ever came into contact with her, then her vampire heart that lays dormant would awaken her mortal body. And she would remember everything…"_

The butterfly flies into the skies and doesn't return.

 **Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷΉEAVENƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

* * *

 **A/N: So the story is officially over now, what do you think of the endings? Which one is your favorite?**

 **If you have any final questions about the story feel free to comment or pm. I will probably do an extra chapter of just the flashbacks and put them in chronological order just so you all can see the development more clearly.**

 **And finally, thank you to all of you wonderful people who reviewed, favorite/followed, and supported this story! (And if anyone is feeling a hole in their hearts at the conclusion of this story, then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND filling it with "Ageless" by gin_no_bara. You can find her here, on Wattpad, and on Archive of Our Own, though I suggest AO3 because that version is the most current and up to date.)**

 **Thanks for reading guys! And may we meet again on some other story~**


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